Gillett girls basketball team rolls to conference win over STAA

The Gillett Secondary School girls basketball team dominated from start to finish during a 63-22 Marinette & Oconto Conference victory over St. Thomas Aquinas Academy on Jan. 15 in Gillett.

The hosts switched up their defense throughout the game and kept a young and inexperienced STAA team off balance. It led to several turnovers and fastbreak points on the other end for Gillett.

When the Tigers weren’t scoring in transition, the team stayed patient on offense, passed the ball well and created more open looks.

“I think the biggest thing for us over the past two games was the amount of transition stuff that we’re improving on,” said Gillett coach Justin Daul. “It’s been night and day from the last two games from earlier in the season. So I’m very happy with that and how they’re responding to the practicing of the transition.”

The visitors scored on their first possession before Gillett scored the next 11 points. After the visiting Cavaliers trimmed the deficit to four, 11-7, the Tigers capped the half on a 26-7 run.

It was Aubrey DeBauch that converted many of Gillett’s looks near the basket, and she ended the first half with 16 points. Macy Franti had seven points.

“I feel like our team works together and we know how to push the pace,” said Franti, on why the team was able to execute as well as it did. “We just have that connection and work well together.”

“I feel like no matter what five we put on the court, we work well together, especially our starting five. Everybody that’s on the floor is on the floor for a reason.

Gillett continued to increase its lead at the start of the second half, with the starting five pushing the lead up to 36, 50-14.

With a game scheduled for the next day, Daul decided to pull his starters at the 11 minute, 52 second mark and finish the game with the five other girls on the roster.

It took the second unit a couple minutes to find their footing, but once they did, the group outscored STAA 13-8 the rest of the way. All 10 Tigers that took the floor during the contest ended up scoring.

Even though the second unit wasn’t able to replicate the points the starters put up, Daul was thrilled that there wasn’t a dropoff on the defensive end.

Along with creating a bunch of turnovers, Gillett was able to avoid foul trouble, something that could prove to be big as the team tries to make a deep postseason run. Only three fouls were called against the Tigers’ starting five.

“Another thing we’ve really been focusing on this season is man defense because in the past we’ve all just focused on some zones. Man really worked tonight. We had our helpers where they needed to be, we found bodies and got the rebounds,” said DeBauch, who finished with a team-leading 22 points. “We also switched some zone in there and the ladies did a good job on helpside, having each other’s backs.”

Ryann Wagner finished with 10 points, while Franti had seven. The team’s starters — DeBauch, Wagner, Franti, Karissa Schaal and Carleigh Kaczmarek — accounted for 45 of the team’s points.

STAA 14 8 — 22

Gillett 37 26 — 63

Gillett (63): Elizabeth Soper 0-0 3, Aubrey DeBauch 2-4 22, Karissa Schaal 0-0 4, Ryann Wagner 2-2 10, Brianna DeBauch 0-0 6, Alaina Herzog 0-0 2, Naomi Anker 0-0 5, Carleigh Kaczmarek 0-0 2, Valerie VandeCorput 0-0 2, Macy Franti 0-0 7.

STAA (22): Addison Pristelski 0-1 10, Livia Benson 1-2 10, Bryleigh Smith 0-0 2.

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