It was tough going for the Three Lakes-Phelps girls basketball team (1-4, 0-1) last week as it dropped both contests to Edgar and Northern Lakes Conference foe Wabeno-Laona to mark four straight losses. The Lady Jays fell on the road to the Wildcats 63-48 before being on the wrong end of a 54-40 game at home to the Rebels.
“We are doing great things on defense and offense but turning the ball over is contributing to us not winning games,” stated TLP head coach Rich Javenkoski.
The Lady Jays opened the week on the road, trying to avenge two losses at the end of November. Three Lakes-Phelps played a close first half with the Wildcats by the end, dropping in 10 field goals in the opening 18 minutes to trail by three, 28-25. Edgar opened the game 11-0 before TLP got on the board from the free throw line.
“Came back strong,” said Javenkoski about the late first-half run.
Kaylee Wilson later drilled a transition three during a run to cut the deficit to two, 20-18, with just under five minutes left in the first half.
TLP freshman guard Malia Szews and junior Haylee Barnekow each scored six of their 15 points in the first half. Szews also added 15 rebounds.
“Malia had 15 points and 15 rebounds. She had an outstanding game as our leading scorer,” said TLP head coach Rich Javenkoski.
In the second half, the Lady Jays got to the charity stripe more often with the help of Szews going 7-for-11 in the second half alone.
Despite the points from the free-throw line, Edgar started fast again and went out on another 11-0 run before Barnekow hit a triple. The Wildcats outscored TLP 35-23 to separate itself in the second.
Wabeno-Laona came to town Thursday last week for the NLC opener for TLP. Junior Kassidy Williams started the scoring with an early triple to go up 3-0, but the Lady Rebels strung together eight straight points to lead 8-3 with just over 12 minutes left in the first half.
Full-court pressure forced the Lady Jays to struggle to put points on the board.
“We beat the press and got down the floor, but we didn’t stop and set up our offense which led to the turnover,” said Javenkoski. “Laona plays good defense. It makes it difficult to set up our offense. We still had 51 shots.”
It sped up the game and contributed to some first-half turnovers and fouls through the midway point of the game. Javenkoski said the team fouled roughly 20 times in the game.
Once the Jays found control, a 5-0 individual run by Szews and a lay-up by Barnekow made it a 21-20 game with 5:03 left.
Szews muscled in another layup to keep the deficit to one, 25-24, but the Lady Rebels extended the lead out to six by the half, 31-25.
Three Lakes got it down to three just over halfway through the second half.
Two Jays fouled out in the second half, and at that point, TLP was still in the fight.
Junior Paige Brafford worked the left block and scored an easy bucket to make it a 38-35 game before the Rebels started to pull away with about five minutes to play.
Up next for Three Lakes is a stretch of road games, including one this past Tuesday at Crivitz and another one at Tomahawk Friday, Dec. 13, starting at 8 p.m.
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