Cold-shooting Thomas More falls
ASHWAUBENON – That shot just wouldn’t fall.
That’s the easiest way to sum up a difficult end to what was a great tournament run for St. Thomas More’s girls basketball team. The Cavaliers earned their first trip to the WIAA state tournament with back-to-back victories over top-five teams in the state rankings.
In the state semifinals Thursday, Thomas More was faced with another highly-regarded team, but this time its chance of victory was stopped cold in a 45-32 loss to Amherst in the Division 3 semifinals at the Resch Center.
The Cavaliers (21-6) missed 18 of their first 20 shots and hit just 17% (5 for 29) in the first half of this match-up of the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds the bracket.
“They play phenomenal defense and offensively we just couldn’t get it going,” Thomas More coach Brian Krysiak said. “I think we hit some jitters. At the beginning of the game we gave them some easy layups on the inside, but we locked down our defense in the second half and that gave us a chance to get back into the game.”
Freshman guard Lindsay Kirby finished with nine points and six rebounds for the third-seeded Cavaliers (21-6). Her older sister, Taylor, a senior forward, added eight points and grabbed seven rebounds. Ellie Hoffmann, a senior, had seven points.
Amherst (26-1) moves on to face Marshall (26-1) in the championship game at 2:30 p.m. Saturday. The Falcons got a monster game from senior center Heather Pearson. The 6-foot-1 senior center hit 7 of 16 shots, scored 17 points and grabbed 20 rebounds. Her play was key in Amherst's 48-26 edge on the glass.
The real story of the day, however, were the shooting percentages.
The Cavaliers shot 22% (13 of 59) and in the tone-setting first half went 9 minutes without a basket.
Pearson was a presence on defense, but Thomas More didn’t help its cause by failing to finish layups and missing good looks from the perimeter. It also hurt that senior point guard Brianna Flayter, the team’s leading scorer and playmaker, was battling a cold. She didn’t score in the first half and finished with five points and three assists.
“I really didn’t get much sleep last night,” said Flayter, who played 35 minutes. ”That’s not an excuse for not playing well, but I was winded most of the game, which didn’t really help.”
As tough as the contest was for Thomas More, it could have been worst. The Cavaliers trailed, 19-3, to open the game, were down, 27-10, just before halftime and fell behind, 30-12, early in the second half.
the team, however, cut the deficit to 10 three times, then got it down to nine with 51⁄2 minutes to play and eight with 2 minutes 12 seconds to play.
“We played with a lot more energy,” Krysiak said. “We went to our 1-3-1 halfcourt trap where we were able to jump the guards a little bit and make them uncomfortable, so that lessened their ability to get the ball to 44 (Pearson) and 40 (junior Lauren Boelte), their nice posts inside."
And so ended Thomas More ‘s best season in recent memory.
In addition to finishing above .500 for the first time in at least 15 years, the team tied for second place in the Metro Classic. In the tournament the Cavaliers defeated state-ranked Kettle Moraine Lutheran and previously undefeated Laconia in the sectional final to advance to their first WIAA state tournament.
“I’m just thankful we’ve had this amazing opportunity,” Taylor Kirby said. “Most teams don’t ever get to go to state and we got to do it in our final goaround.”
Marshall 58, Wisconsin Dells 47: The top-seeded Cardinals (26-0) had four players score in double digits.
Freshman forward Laura Lutz posted team highs in points (17) and rebounds (eight). Mia Morel, a freshman guard, scored 16 points and had nine assists, with 14 of those points and six assists in the second half.
Wisconsin Dells (25-2) got 26 points from senior Katelyn Meister.