Heiligenthal’s double-double sparks CC Tuesday night
By Mike Ramczyk
Sports Editor
And Dana Ehrmann
Sports Correspondent
After two signature victories over perennial powers Kenosha St. Joe’s and Racine St. Cat’s, the Catholic Central boys basketball team took care of business on its home floor Tuesday night.
Senior Ben Heiligenthal scored 26 points on 11 of 15 shooting and grabbed 11 rebounds, and the streaking Toppers handled Shoreland Lutheran, 57-44, in a Metro Classic Conference tilt.
The Toppers improved to 9-7 overall and 7-4 in the league, good for third place behind Whitefish Bay Dominican (10-0) and Racine Lutheran (7-3).
Frank Koehnke added 11 points, and Brandon Vandehei tallied 10 points for Catholic Central. The Toppers were strong form three-point range (4-for-8) and free-throw land (65 percent).
Heiligenthal added three assists and three steals.
Catholic Central travels to Greendale Martin Luther Saturday night.
On Jan. 30, Catholic Central won for the first time in school history at Racine St. Cat’s, 54-29.
A 22-17 halftime score turned into a blowout as the Toppers outscored the Angels 32-12 in the second half.
Heiligenthal led the way with 21 points and 11 rebounds. Cole Pankau added 10 points.
Flu bug plagues Lady Toppers
Late January into February is known as two things – prime basketball season, and prime flu season.
The girls of the Catholic Central basketball team experienced an unfortunate intersection of the two this past week.
As they embarked on the part of their schedule when they face conference opponents for the second time, they also saw their numbers dwindle due to the flu and a few other health issues.
On Jan. 30 against Dominican, Catholic Central had nine players available, down from 13.
On Tuesday night, the Lady Toppers lost, 61-40, at home against Shoreland Lutheran.
Laura Klein led the team with 14 points.
Fatigue is usually a concern of Catholic Central’s anyway, given that they have a small program and have many girls playing JV minutes right before varsity games. Therefore, it was an even greater factor against Dominican with illness taking more players out of commission.
That, as well as turnovers, tipped what was a fairly close game into Dominican’s favor, with a final score of 52-32.
Junior Bridget Bittmann and Elizabeth Klein led the Lady Toppers with nine points and four rebounds each, while “Emma [Klein] played a solid, heads-up game and made some great passes for assists,” said coach Suzy Bittmann.
Against St. Joseph’s on Jan. 28, the Lady Toppers were worse off with only eight players. Five of those eight usually see most of their playing time in JV games. The JV game was canceled this time.
The starting five were freshman Miriam Ward, sophomore Mikelle Miles, and Klein times three – Laura, Emma and Elizabeth.
“Laura stepped up as a leader to all these young players and encouraged them the whole night. They gave everything they could,” said coach Bittmann.
But being down so many players proved too much to overcome, along with a Lancer offense that had more players score (nine) than Catholic Central had available.
The final score was Lancers 67, Toppers 22.
Senior Laura Klein led the way with nine points.
Catholic Central looks ahead to Martin Luther on February 5.
Lady Demons win fourth straight
Megan Wallace scored 11 points, Jessa Burling added 10, and the Burlington girls varsity basketball team won its fourth straight game, 47-18, Friday night against Elkhorn.
The Lady Demons are now 7-3 in the Southern Lakes Conference, 1.5 games behind Union Grove & three behind first-place Wilmot.
“We played great team basketball,” Burlington head coach Mary Parker said. “Defensively, we played very tough tonight, and were able to hold them to only seven made baskets. We were able to control the rebounds. We had a very balanced offensive attack tonight, and everyone got involved. We had great vision against their zone, and really moved the ball well to find the open player.”
Wallace and Burling said the team has been playing really well since a loss to conference-leading Wilmot.
“It feels really good,” Burling said Friday. “We’ve come together as a team and gotten our groove.”
Wallace, who has been a strong inside presence, said the girls have improved this season.
“The coaches push us so hard to do our best, and we push each other,” Wallace said. “We push each other, so when we get to the tough games, we’ll be ready.”
Burlington will get a chance to leapfrog Union Grove into second place when it travels to Union Grove this Friday night.
“Anything can happen in our conference,” Burling said. “If we play to the best of our ability, we have an opportunity to win conference.”
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