Lyle-Pacelli girls wrap up first SEC West Division title
Published 10:37 pm Thursday, February 7, 2013
Lyle-Pacelli's Ann Rysavy reaches for a rebound with Grand Meadow's Audra Durhman during the first half Friday night in Grand Meadow. -- Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com
GRAND MEADOW — The Lyle-Pacelli girls basketball team clinched its first ever Southeast Conference West Division title when it beat Grand Meadow 76-40 on the road Thursday.
The win showed how effective LP’s depth is as 10 players scored for the Athletics (19-2 overall, 13-2 SEC) and the team’s defense pressured GM (12-9 overall, 10-5 SEC) into 27 turnovers.
Grand Meadow's Rachel Oehlke shoots over Lyle-Pacelli's Kendal Truckenmiller during the first half Thursday night in Grand Meadow.
“When you go nine deep it’s tough on people. Because you go up and down the floor and their legs get tired, while we’re still fresh,” LP head coach Brad Walter said. “Three or four years ago I don’t think we would’ve been talking about (winning the West), but these kids put in a lot of effort and we thought we could accomplish this if they played together.”
LP junior guard Ann Rysavy led the charge with 13 points, nine rebounds and five assists. She said the West Division title is something she’s wanted to be a part of for awhile and she was glad the whole team could contribute to the win.
“It’s huge. I’ve wanted this really bad. As a team, we pulled it together and we won the conference together,” she said. “It’s so much more fun to open it up and let everyone score. It’s way more fun that way, instead of just having one person scoring.”
As Rysavy was taking a breather in the second half, LP seventh grader Brooke Walter did her best Rysavy impersonation as she was playing hounding defense and making some nice post feeds. Brooke Walter finished with eight points, five steals and four assists.
“Anne’s a good role model and I look up to her,” Brooke Walter said. “I had a lot of fun tonight and our team played very well in the second half.”
Rysavy sees big things on the horizon for her younger backup.
“As a seventh grader, I didn’t play much, but she’s an all-around player,” she said of Brooke Walter. “She’s gonna develop really well and she’s gonna be really strong I think.”
LP jumped out to 10-0 lead to open the game as Rysavy and Courtney Walter connected on 3s and the lead was as big as 20-4, before the Superlarks closed to within 22-11.
“We came out nervous and we got cold on threes,” GM head coach Dawn Baudoin said. “We couldn’t get over it and then we started making mistakes.”
The Larks had been on a hot shooting streak on threes headed into Thursday’s game, but they hit just one 3-pointer against LP. The Athletics took advantage as they closed the first half with six straight points in the last minute when Courtney Walter hit a 3 and Annie Holtz converted a three-point play at the buzzer to make it 37-17.
“They have really good guards and we do to. The kids took it as a challenge and they stayed in their face and it was a lot of good effort,” Brad Walter said. “The passing was great in the second half. We made that extra pass and it led to easy buckets.”
LP 37 39 — 76
GM 17 23 — 40
LP scoring: Ann Rysavy, 13; Sarah Holtz, 12; Maggie Lewison, 10; Courtney Walter, 9; Brooke Walter, 8; Bethany Strouf, 7; Madison Truckenmiller, 6; Kendall Truckenmiller, 4; Annie Holtz, 3; Shakana Quelle, 2; free throws: 45 percent (5-for-11); rebounds: 39 (Rysavy, 9); turnovers: 14
GM scoring: Ashley Crumb, 9; Audra Durhman, 7; Rio Landers, 6; Autumn Thorsen, 4; Courtney Olson, 4; Sydney Richardson, 4; Rachel Oehlke, 4; Dani Cavalache, 2; free throws: 54 percent (7-for-13); rebounds: 26 (Crumb, 6); turnovers: 26
