Tenacious defense shuts down rivals
New Berlin Eisenhower made the points hard to come by Tuesday night. Really hard.
The Lions girls basketball team scored a thorough 45-20 victory over Woodland West rival Pius XI on the road, holding the Popes to just three field goals, 13.6% shooting and to just one field goal in the second half.
“That was probably our best defensive game of the year,” Eisenhower coach Gary Schmidt said.
It was also the most impressive victory of the season for the defending Division 2 state champion, which is ranked fifth in the area by the Journal Sentinel.
Senior Jasmyn Somarsingh, a 6-foot-1 forward, finished with a team-high nine points and five rebounds for the Lions, who improved to 6-1 overall and at 5-0 in the Woodland West and are tied with New Berlin West for the league lead.
Junior guard Olivia Canady added seven points, five during an 11-0 run late in the first half. Junior guard Alicia Putney was next with 2 three-pointers for six points.
Ten Eisenhower players scored in all.
“We couldn’t tell you who our leading scorer
was,” Schmidt said. “From a coaches perspective that’s awesome.”
Pius, which lost to New Berlin West by 10 last week, lost its second straight game and dropped to 5-3 overall and 3-2 in the Woodland West.
Senior guard Cassie Collins finished with eight points on 3-for-8 shooting. The team’s top two scorers — juniors Alana Perkins (14.7 points per game entering play) and Jordyn Zader (11.1) — combined for seven points and missed 15 of 16 shots.
A young Pius team that features two freshmen in the starting lineup couldn’t pick up the slack.
Eisenhower, on the other hand, has a number of contributors back from last season, so much so that it won handily even though sophomore guard Julia Hintz, the team’s leading scorer (12.3) battled first-half foul trouble and finished the night with five points.
“Last year we were a really deep team. We had a lot of talent and we had five really good starters, so obviously they took the spotlight, but we’re still deep and those (other) people are shining,” Somarsingh said. “It’s really a team effort and I think our chemistry is really what pushes us through unlike other teams.”
Eisenhower led, 18-13, at the half on the strength of an 11-0 run that spanned 4 minutes and gave it an 18-10 edge.
Before that stretch, however, the points were hard to come by for both teams. Eisenhower didn’t score over the first 4 minutes. Pius didn’t get on the board until almost 6 minutes had passed.
Pius led, 10-7, with 7 minutes 15 seconds left in the half when the Lions started to roar.
Putney started the stretch with her second three of the half. Two possessions later, Somarsingh’s three-point play gave Eisenhower a 13-10 advantage. Canady closed the run with five straight points, the first three on free throws and the final two off a slice to the bucket that gave the Lions their eight-point lead.
However, just as Eisenhower was poised to take control, it turned the ball over on its final three possessions
“We couldn’t tell you who our leading scorer was. From a coaches perspective that’s awesome.” GARY SCHMIDT, NEW BERLIN EISENHOWER COACH
of the half. Perkins converted one of those turnovers into a three-pointer from the corner that cut the Lions lead to five at the half.
The bucket was Pius’ first points in almost 6 minutes. The game would get no easier for the Popes in the second half against an Eisenhower squad that Schmidt is still trying to figure out.
“I think people are trying to figure us out and I think to some degree we are, too,” he said. “It was a very good challenge for us tonight. It certainly is a step forward for us to find our identity.”