Shawano girls basketball team struggles offensively in home loss

The Shawano Community High School girls basketball team had a difficult time getting into an offensive rhythm during its 66-32 setback to West De Pere in a Bay Conference clash held Dec. 6 in Shawano.

The Hawks were limited to three field goals and 11 points in the opening half. West De Pere then busted the game open in the second half behind some strong 3-point shooting.

In the early stages of the contest, Shawano did a great job of attacking the West De Pere defense. The Hawks drew five fouls in roughly the first four minutes. Unfortunately, the hosts only converted two of their six free throws, so the game was tied at 2-2.

A quick 8-0 West De Pere run put Shawano in a hole that it could never climb out of.

Shawano’s first field goal came 6 minutes, 20 seconds into the contest when Trinity Popelka converted a shot. She also had the team’s second field goal roughly 11 minutes into the game.

The Hawks’ only other first-half field goal was by Abby Bystol in the waning seconds of the half.

“We knew this was going to be a tough game. I think they’re expected to win conference, so we knew it was going to be tough coming out,” said Bystol. “We always have a slow start; we can never really get in that rhythm.

“Defensively, we started out really good, but that really doesn’t matter — I mean, it affects their score, but not really ours. You can’t win if you don’t shoot. We were, but they just weren’t falling. We just got to get going earlier than we did.”

Despite only tallying 11 first-half points, Shawano was only down 11 at halftime thanks to strong play on the defensive end. The Hawks energy spent on that side of the floor may have impacted play on offense, according to Popelka.

“It was more so the beginning of the half, we were really putting all of our effort into defense. And then on offense, we would just be standing there, and it wasn’t working for us, obviously; we were only at 11 at halftime.”

Offense came a little bit easier in the second half for Shawano, but West De Pere was also able to tweak some things to perform better against the Hawks’ zone defense.

The visiting Phantoms scored the first seven points in the second half before an Ella Stuber bucket got Shawano going. A West De Pere triple was matched by a Bystol 3-pointer.

A 7-0 West De Pere spurt made it a 23-point deficit for the Hawks.

“We did change our defense from a 3-2, which was guarding the outside more, to a 2-3, which focused more on the inside and corners,” said Popelka. “But we did get wore out. It’s early in the season yet, so we did end up getting tired and we shifted slow.”

West De Pere ended up hitting six 3-pointers in the second half alone to help the visitors run away with the game.

Even though the scoreboard showed a lopsided score by the time the final buzzer went off, Shawano — which was missing leading scorer Leah Nordin — still learned some things about itself.

“We can stick with teams if we come out strong,” said Bystol. “We were right there, I think it was 22-11 at half.”

“If we put our mind to it, we can do it,” Bystol continued. “That’s all we need. We need confidence.”

Bystol led the team with seven points. Stuber and Popelka each chipped in six points.

West De Pere 22 44 — 66

Shawano 11 21 — 32

West De Pere (66): Alanna Noggle 0-0 2, Faith Walder 5-7 11, Katie Waukau 0-0 10, Noelle Runke 0-2 2, Madisyn Berggren 0-0 12, Ava Hoffman 0-2 0, Ava VanEss 0-0 3, Ella Francois 4-5 22, Victoria Karchinski 0-0 4, Anna Rattray 0-1 0.

Shawano (32): Darcie Erdmann 0-0 4, Marissa Tomashek 2-5 2, Ella Stuber 2-4 6, Trinity Popelka 0-1 6, Braylyn Babino 1-2 3, Abby Bystol 0-2 7, Brynlie Boyles 2-2 4.

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