The Irish traveled to Watertown-Mayer the weekend of December 17 and 18 to compete in the Holiday tournament, where they took both a win and a loss.
The first game against Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted was extremely close, with Maple Lake losing by only one point. But, the Irish came back Saturday night and triumphed over the Paynesville Bulldogs.
Irish Vs. HL-W-W
Unable to capture the first win in the Watertown-Mayer Holiday Tournament on December 17, the Irish came up just one point shy of victory, losing to Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 47 – 48.
“This was a tough loss for us,” said Coach John Riewer. “We shot the ball extremely well in the first half, but in the second half the ball just would not fall.”
Going into half-time, the Irish were up by seven, 29 – 22. But with shots just not falling for the girls, they only scored 6 in the third quarter, which left them only up by 3 going into the final quarter. It was an intense eight minutes of basketball, and both teams battled until that final buzzer.
A big determining factor in the game was three-point shooting. The Lakers hit six three-pointers, where as the Irish only had two three-pointers.
Another difference in the game was at the free-throw line. The Lakers shot 85 percent from the line while the Irish, shooting 61 percent, made only 11 of their 18 attempts. Maple Lake was able to rebound fairly well throughout the game though, having 5 more offensive boards than Howard Lake. In addition, they also played defense well, with 14 steals, and a total of 20 Laker turnovers, compared to 13 Irish turnovers. Jen Kempenich had 5 of the steals, Lindsey Smith had 3, and both Sarah Dombrovski and Rachel Sawatzke had 2.
Dombrovski led the team in scoring for the night with 15 points, and following her was Sawatzke with 12. Freshmen Molly Schaufler contributed with 6 points, and Traci Erger had 5.
“It was an extremely rough and physical game, and the girls played tough. We had our chances, but we just weren’t able to capitalize on them,” said Riewer.
Irish Vs. Paynesville
Maple Lake traveled back to Watertown on December 18, and played a remarkable game against the Paynesville Bulldogs.
“The girls came out and really played great team basketball,” Riewer said. “We shot the ball extremely well, and it was a great opportunity to play many of the girls. All nine girls who played scored.”
Dominating from the very beginning, the Irish scored 21 in the first quarter alone, and shut down the Bulldogs, holding them to only 9 points.
The scoring drive carried over into the second quarter as well, and going into the half, the girls were up by a controlling lead of 37 to 17. With such a big lead everyone was able to play, and the girls had fun with it. Throughout the game, every player scored, and three of the girls were in double digits. Kempenich led with 19, Molly Schaufler with 13, Rachel Sawatzke with 12, and Sarah Dombrovski, Lindsey Smith, and Sarah Latour all put up 5 points.
“We really played together well. We had 20 team assists, which is something I am extremely proud of,” said Riewer. Kempenich had 8 assists, Smith had 4, and Dombrovski had 3.
The team also rebounded very well, dominating both the offensive and defensive boards. The Bulldogs only had 2 boards offensively and 15 defensively, while the Irish had an impressive 8 offensive and 28 defensive rebounds. Sawatzke grabbed 7, and Smith and Schaufler both had 5.
“I think the loss to Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted woke us up. We are a very good little basketball team, but we must execute offensively all four quarters,” said Riewer. Next week, the Irish have only one game against Pierz, and hopefully they will be able to take their second conference win home.
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