McKenna Larsen and Carly Lemke scored 18 points each and the Oconto Falls girls basketball team beat Shawano 47-28 in a Bay Conference game Friday in Shawano.
Lemke, a 6-foot-1 senior forward, tallied 14 first-half points, mostly under the basket, for Oconto Falls (6-0, 3-0 Bay).
“Offensively, we kind of felt she had the hot hand,” Oconto Falls coach Mike Kaczmarek Jr. said. “We ran a couple of special sets for her, to get her good looks.”
Larsen provided the juice in the second half, scoring 12 of her 18 points after the midpoint break, getting a couple of nice driving layups and a couple of breakaways.
Shawano, which was missing starting point guard Megan Klitzke because of illness, trailed 12-8 after the first quarter, but fell behind 22-12 by halftime. Oconto Falls opened the third quarter with a 11-2 run until Courtney Vomastic hit a 3-pointer to cut the Panthers’ edge to 33-17.
“Oconto Falls is a very tough team,” Shawano coach Ryan Koenig said. “I think they’ll be competing at the top of the conference, if not finishing at the top.”
In the fourth quarter, three Oconto Falls’ breakaways — two by Larsen and a third by Bailey Wolf — put the Panthers ahead 43-20 with 4:34 left to play.
Shawano (1-7, 1-4 Bay) managed to close the gap slightly, getting a pair of baskets by Erika Dunnam, a 6-1 sophomore forward who also had five rebounds.
Lindsey Kurtz, a 5-9 senior forward, led Shawano with seven points and seven rebounds.
Turnovers, a problem for Shawano most of the season, were again a factor. The Hawks had 24 turnovers to Oconto Falls’ six.
“We still had too many turnovers,” Koenig said. “We’re not learning from our mistakes, that’s the most disappointing part. We have a young team, but that’s not an excuse anymore.”
Kaczmarek said his team played unevenly, despite the 19-point win.
“Kind of what I expected after a 13-day layoff,” Kaczmarek said. “We have to get back in the flow of things here.”
Oconto Falls, which has been productive from beyond the 3-point arc this season, was limited to two Friday night.
Oconto Falls (47)
Watzka 2 0-0 4, Lemke 8 2-2 18, Larsen 8 1-3 18, Wolf 3 0-0 7
Shawano (28)
Klitzke 2 0-0 4, K. Hokenstad 0 0-2 0, Boda 1 0-0 2, Kurtz 2 2-5 7, S. Hokenstad 2 0-1 4, Vomastic 1 0-0 3, Smurawa 1 0-0 2, Dunnam 2 0-0 4, Ward 1 0-0 2
Oconto Falls 12 10 11 14 — 47
Shawano 8 4 5 11 — 28
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