The Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton girls’ basketball team led the kickoff of the winter sports season with a well-earned Gopher Conference victory against United South Central in its home opener on Tuesday, November 26.
Last season, JWP swept USC’s rebels, scoring 67-38 on the road and 77-34 at home. The latter game was the most points the Lady Dawgs scored in a single game all season. However, it’s a new season, and the Rebels proved that they weren’t a team to look past on the schedule.
Some may see the final score of 71-51 and think it was a competitive game, with JWP leading throughout. But there’s more to the story. The first few minutes were a wake-up call for the JWP girls, as the Rebels had fantastic accuracy from the three-point line and put the Bulldogs behind 11-0. Junior Nevaeh Weimert eventually stopped the bleeding three minutes in after drawing a foul and making a free throw to cut the deficit to ten.
Head Coach Brandon Goebel felt a lot went into the first ten minutes of the game. “OF course, it isn’t ideal when an opposing team starts the game 4-4 from the field and 3-3 from 3,” he said. “I believe our girls were a bit nervous seeing as it was the first game. Along with that, we were not defending at a high enough level which is expected from them.”
USC still played good offense throughout the first half, but JWP slowly crawled back into it. The Rebels took a timeout when they had a 17-11 lead, but whatever strategy they drew up didn’t help them defensively. Weimert made a three-pointer in the final seconds of the first half to tie it 34-34.
The second half featured much better defense from JWP. They pressed the Rebels and forced many turnovers. However, it came at the cost of several fouls. In fairness to the Bulldogs, both teams had nine fouls in the first half and maxed out the scoreboard with four minutes left. Their aggressive play paid off, though.
“I was very proud of how the girls responded after getting behind early, especially in the second half,” Goebel said. “They came out and defended at a higher level and pushed the ball in transition…everything that we should have been doing in the first half.”
About five minutes into the second half, though, there was a sudden stoppage of play after JWP scored. Katie Olson took a hard fall just seconds beforehand and was slow to get up. She appeared to be doing alright once she was helped to a chair. Coach Goebel didn’t have any additional information he could share at this time.
It was a game in which the Bulldogs probably didn’t expect to deal with as much adversity as they did, but they made it out of the game with a 71-51 victory. James led the way with 22 points a 9 rebounds, with Weimert scoring 19. Other contributors were Olson with 12 points and 5 steals, Mikayla Wheelock with 9 points, Lilly Strauss with 4 points, Hope Dimmel with 3 points and 9 rebounds, and Kwynn Krause with 2 points.
“Knowing that we can get multiple stops in a row and then go score on our end is huge,” Goebel commented. “We will have to continue to find ways to get stops, especially in tight games.”
The victory gave the girls a key win in the western division of the Gopher Conference. The girls traveled to Sibley East on Monday, December 2, for a Section 2AA rivalry game and will host Hayfield for another conference tilt on Friday, Dec. 6.
