By Bud Milroy
Sports Correspondent
The Catholic Central High School girls basketball team is still in search of its first victory this year, but head coach Jeff Behrens liked the efforts of his squad at the Badger Holiday Tournament last week.
The Lady ’Toppers lost to host Badger 52-39 Dec. 37, and then to Slinger in the consolation contest 47-30 on the 28th.
However, Behrens said his team produced an especially good effort against Badger.
“This was the best game overall we’ve played this season,” Behren said. “It took us a while to get into the right defense, but we played real hard and hung in there.”
Badger jumped out to a first-quarter lead on the strength of its 3-point shooting, netting five in the period. Following adjustments on defense, the Lady ’Toppers cut the Badger lead to 27-22 at the half.
The two teams played evenly in the third period before Badger found the range from beyond the arc late in the period with a pair of threes to extend their lead to 10.
The Lady ’Toppers couldn’t get any closer in the fourth quarter.
Badger finished the contest with 10 3-pointers, compared to three for Catholic Central. Sophie Foote returned to action after missing two games with an injury, and scored a game-high 17 points.
Ali Wiemer added nine points and Kelsey Robers seven. Karina Reeves led Badger with 16, while Tristan Sproul added 12.
In the consolation game, the Lady ’Toppers were as bad as they were good the night before, when a poor first half put the squad down 27-7.
“We had another terrible shooting first half,” Behrens said. “We couldn’t get anything to go in.”
The Lady ’Toppers improved in the second half, outscoring Slinger 23-20, but it was too little, too late.
Robers led Catholic Central with 12 points, going 6-for-7 from the free throw line. Wiemer used a strong fourth quarter to reach double figures with 10 points, and also led the team with 11 rebounds.
East Troy routed Badger for the tournament title, 57-28.
Catholic Central will return to Metro Classic Conference action Tuesday when they travel to Racine to play The Prairie School at 7:30 p.m.
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