Girls Basketball: Troxel, Robaidek lead Bonduel to win

BONDUEL — The duo of Kara Troxel and Allaina Robaidek had a monster first half to help the Bonduel High School girls basketball team out to a comfortable lead. Bonduel then hung on down the stretch to claim a 56-44 nonconference win over Gillett on Tuesday.

After Gillett scored four of the game’s first six points, Robaidek, a sophomore, and Troxel, a junior, helped Bonduel take a lead it wouldn’t relinquish again.

Robaidek hit a 3-pointer to put the Bears ahead before Troxel knocked down a triple of her own. Robaidek then converted a pair of field goals to make it 12-4 and force a Tigers’ timeout.

“Well, we shot it pretty well from the 3-point line,” said Bonduel coach Jerry Reinke on the offense in the first half. “That’s something we haven’t really done quite so well this year as we have in previous years. Hitting those 3s early got us out to a pretty good start.”

Gillett started to heat up on offense after the timeout, cutting the deficit to six multiple times, but Robaidek and Troxel were able to answer.

Robaidek knocked down a second 3-pointer before Troxel hit the Bears’ next two 3s to make it 21-12.

“In the first half, we worked well together,” said Robaidek. “We finally put it all together this game and played as a team. Even though some players didn’t have points, we couldn’t have gotten that win without them.”

The Tigers continued to find ways to score, cutting the deficit to four two times, but Troxel knocked down a field goal before another 3-pointer to push the lead up to seven.

It wasn’t until the 4:16 mark of the first half that a Bear not wearing No. 2 (Robaidek) or No. 3 (Troxel) scored, as junior Madison Kurey hit a free throw. Freshman Josie Hoffman knocked down a shot before Troxel scored off a steal to put the hosts up 31-22.

After a Gillett free throw, Bonduel got a big 3-pointer from Hoffman before Troxel put an exclamation point on her big first half with a triple at the buzzer to give the Bears a 37-23 halftime lead.

“We just kept moving the ball around,” said Troxel on the first half. “They were in man (to-man defense), and they didn’t really know our offense at first, so we kept getting good looks. We kept tiring them out and making good passes until we finally got the open shot. We were just lights-out tonight for our shooting.”

Troxel scored 18 points in the opening 18 minutes, while Robaidek had 13.

Gillett made some halftime adjustments that limited Bonduel to just 11 points in the first 13-plus minutes of the second half. Bonduel’s defense was even better, holding Gillett to seven points during that span.

The Bears eventually worked the lead up to 22 points on a pair of free throws from Troxel. Gillett went on a 12-2 run to tighten up the game, but they eventually ran out of time.

In Bonduel’s 19-point second half, Troxel again led the way, scoring 11 points to finish with 29 for the game.

Hoffman hit three free throws to tally eight points for the contest, while Robaidek scored two more points in the half to finish with 15.

Bonduel will look to keep the momentum rolling when traveling to take on Shiocton on Friday.

Gillett 23 21 — 44

Bonduel 37 19 — 56

Bonduel (56): Allaina Robaidek 0-1 15, Kara Troxel 5-6 29, Josie Hoffman 3-4 8, Madison Kurey 1-2 3, Kylie Hoffman 1-2 1.

Gillett (44): Sydney Young 1-1 8, Aubrey DeBauch 6-9 18, Karissa Schaal 0-1 15, Ryann Wagner 0-1 0, Camryn Long 1-2 3.

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