Suring girls basketball team drops foul-filled sectional semifinal

The Suring High School girls basketball team got off to a fast start in its Division 5 sectional semifinal playoff game against Athens on Feb. 18 in Suring, but foul trouble caught up to the Eagles in an eventual 62-52 loss.

Suring’s defensive intensity set the tone in the early going, and the Eagles were hitting nearly every shot they took on their way to a 17-2 lead less than seven minutes into the contest.

A couple of Suring players, Christine Sleeter and Paige Krueger, were called for their second fouls, at which point coach Mitchell Woulf decided to take them out of the game. Athens took advantage in a big way, going on a 17-3 run to pull within a point, 20-19.

“We got into foul trouble. And it’s always a tough decision on what you’re gonna do,” said Woulf. “Do you let it ride? Do you go to the bench? Paige picked up her second (foul) and she sat awhile, and then picked up her third right before half. It’s second guessing — should I have let her go back in? It’s just one of those things.”

After coming back into the game, Krueger hit a shot to snap a five-and-a-half minute scoring drought for the hosts. The visitors responded with a 6-0 run before Suring’s Kylee Stelzer hit a 3-pointer to tie the contest at 25. Athens scored the final three points of the half, which included 16 combined foul calls.

“(The game) definitely started out with us having the big boards, which put us in the lead,” said Krueger. “Then, I don’t know if we got a little lazy or what, and we started to foul more. And that’s when we kind of laid off the boards, and I think that’s what was the big change in the game.”

“I think they just got the rebounds and we didn’t,” said Stelzer. “They got some easy putbacks and it was tough to come back from. Once you’re down by a little bit, it’s hard to get that momentum back.”

Kate Mahoney knocked down a jumper for the Eagles early in the second half before Athens went on a run and started to pull away. After a bucket off a steal by Suring’s Kelsey Smith, Athens hit back-to-back 3-pointers to start a 14-4 run and go up 44-34.

The teams then traded baskets and free throws over the next couple minutes before Suring’s foul troubles starting showing up again.

Sleeter fouled out of the contest with 8:30 to play. The Eagles then trimmed their deficit to seven, 49-42, before Krueger fouled out.

Soon after, Athens used a 13-1 spurt to put the game out of reach. Suring battled until the very last whistle, but eventually ran out of time.

“My team was amazing. We were so close to each other. It’s hard to answer, I guess,” said Stelzer when asked about what she’d remember about the season. “We were just so close and everything just fell into place in the middle of the season. We did our best and that’s all we can do about it.”

“The thing I’m going to remember most is just this team in general,” said Krueger. “We started off so far from it. We didn’t know how to win, we didn’t know what it was going to be like this year and what we were going to have the chance to do. We came out here and we played our hardest. We didn’t get in quarantine, which was lucky. We put in all that extra work whenever we could just to fight for this and it’s amazing making it this far.”

Stelzer was Suring’s top scorer with 21 points. Krueger added 13 points, while Smith had seven.

In a game that had a combined 48 combined foul calls, Suring picked up 30 of them. Stelzer, Krueger, Sleeter and Macyn Garrigan all ended up fouling out.

Athens ended up shooting 42 free throws in the game, making only 17 of them. Suring attempted 20 free throws, making 11.

Athens 28 34 — 62

Suring 25 27 — 52

Athens (62): Addyson Zettler 0-2 0, Addison Lavicka 3-9 9, Kaitlyn Riehle 3-6 8, Jazelle Hartwig 5-10 20, Sophia Coker 5-8 7, Elizabeth Van Rixel 0-1 5, Hattie Nowacki 0-2 0, McKennzie Schrug 1-4 13.

Suring (52): Hailey Thomson 1-2 1, Kate Mahoney 0-0 2, MacKenzie Bailey 0-1 2, Kylee Stelzer 6-10 21, Paige Krueger 3-4 13, Christine Sleeter 0-0 4, Kelsey Smith 1-3 7, Macyn Garrigan 0-0 2.

sports@newmedia-wi.com