Two Big Wins for Patriot Girls
Launch the media gallery 1 playerBy: Brynn Settje, a freshman at Leigh High School
January is the prime month for high school basketball, and it is filled with a tough schedule for the Patriot girls.
This past week the Patriots girls had two very tough back-to-back games against BRLD on January 24 and Wisner on January 25. The girls knew going into these two games they were going to have to play at their best to secure wins.
The game against BRLD was postponed from earlier in the season due to weather. Everyone was excited that both teams could find a time to reschedule, and the Patriot girls were ready. The Wolverines entered the game with a 12-3 record, while the Patriots had an 11-5 record.
The Patriots had a slow start, making a lot of mistakes against their BRLD’s press. After a low-scoring second quarter for both teams, the Patriots were up by 1 going into halftime, 18-17.
After halftime, the Patriots were outscored by 5 points in the third quarter, leaving them trailing by 4 headed into the fourth. But the Patriots turned up the intensity in the fourth, outscoring the Wolverines by 10 points to secure a 50-44 win.
Sophomore Chloe Hanel attacked the hoop all night to lead the team to victory. She ended the night with 29 points. Junior Korbee Wendt battled in the middle to pull down 13 rebounds on the night.
Head Coach Matt Murren said, "BRLD is a great team, so we knew we were going to have to make plays to win. We did a great job of battling back from down 8 in the 3rd quarter to taking the lead in the 4th quarter. It was important for us to be able to close out a late game, and the girls stepped up and knocked down some big free throws there at the end to secure the win.”
The Patriots then went on to play 11-4 Wisner-Pilger the next day. They were still excited from the win the previous night, and they were ready to do it again. For this game we knew that it was also going to be a tough one. Everyone had to be ready to play again, to get the win.
This game was also a slow start for the Patriots, but at halftime, they had a 3-point lead. After halftime was over, the Patriots really kicked it up a notch and started playing a lot better. A big fourth quarter led to a 51-36 win over the Gators.
Hanel, along with senior Kennedy Settje, each put up 17 points this game. Settje also led the team with 9 rebounds.
Korbee Wendt, a junior, said, “These were both fun games. We went into both games knowing that they were ours and came out with a couple of much-needed wins. Both games started out slow in the first half, but we then came out after halftime and took care of business. Overall both of these games were huge team wins.”
“We picked up our energy defensively midway through that third quarter. We got some tips on the defensive end, then started attacking offensively,” Coach Murren said. “It just made a difference energy wise. We knew this was a big game and big week for us, and the next couple weeks are all big weeks. We knew we had opportunities in these two games. We’ve been in close games. We just have to finish them out, and we were able to do that this week.”
The Patriots record is now at 13-5.
Stats vs. BRLD
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Final
BRLD 14 3 13 14 44
Clarkson-Leigh 13 5 8 24 50
Individual Stats: (points, rebounds, assists, steals)
Chloe Hanel: 29, 5, 3, 2; Kennedy: 5, 4, 3, 3; Faith: 4, 2, 0, 1; Makenna: 0, 4, 1, 2 ;Jessica: 4, 1, 0, 0; Korbee: 5, 13, 1, 0; Brynn: 3, 4, 0, 0
Stats vs. Wisner-Pilger
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Final
Wisner 7 11 8 10 36
Clarkson-Leigh 9 12 11 19 51
Individual Stats: (points, rebounds, assists, steals)
Chloe Hanel: 17, 0, 4, 7; Kennedy: 17, 9, 0, 1; Faith: 4, 0, 0, 0; Makenna: 0, 2, 2, 1; Jessica: 5, 3, 0, 0; Korbee: 6, 4, 0, 0; Brynn: 0, 0, 0, 1; Baylee: 2, 1, 0, 0; Gracie: 0, 0, 1, 0