Lady Jays win third straight heading into holiday break

After a 1-4 start in the first five games, the Three Lakes-Phelps girls basketball team has bounced back with a third-straight win after taking down Prentice 39-35 on the road Dec. 16, the team’s last game before the holiday break.
Paige Bradford led the way with 11 points and eight rebounds. Haylee Barnekow and Malia Szews each had 10 points, while Barnekow tallied six steals. Ayla Connor also finished with four points.
“Winning is always nice. The big thing is turnovers and defense. Our turnovers are down. We’re playing good defense, focusing on key players on the other team, and limiting their ability to take advantage of us,” said TLP head coach Rich Javenkoski. “Defense is winning our games right now. Once we get our offense going, I think we’ll be in great shape.”
Javenkoski said that defensive effort showed as they made everyone else on Prentice try to beat them.
“[Prentice’s] key player, although she had 23 points, the other players on the team, no one had more than I think three points,” he said.
The Lady Jays made a stand defensively early and came away with multiple steals in the first five minutes of the game and trailed 7-6 early.
“We slowed the game down and tried to get them out of their zone and in the process took a lot of time off the clock,” explained Javenkoski.
A fast break layup from Barnekow early in the second half put TLP’s lead to nine, 29-20, with about 15 minutes to play.
Javenkoski also talked highly about the depth his team has as the Lady Jays swapped in a lot of players who contributed to the win.
“We put Haylee and Kailin Fogerty on (Kali Heikkinen) and I think we tired her out by the end,” stated Javenkoski. “We asked a lot of those two kids to try and neutralize their best player and still contribute on both sides of the ball.”
He said those two have answered the bell in how they’ve played early on this year.
Connor’s four points turned out to be a big difference in the point differential.
“Ayla Connor contributed. She only scored four points, but the four points are the difference in the game as far as I’m concerned,” stated Javenkoski.
TLP moved to 4-4 (0-1) as the Christmas break hits, and Javenkoski said the winning streak is a great way to enter the break.
Next up is a Northern Lakes Conference road game in Florence on Friday, Jan. 3, at 7:15 p.m. TLP will return home to play Rhinelander Tuesday, Jan. 7, at 6 p.m.