By Bud Milroy
Sports correspondent
For the second year in a row, the Catholic Central High School girls basketball team is a WIAA Division 5 regional champion.
The Lady ’Toppers claimed the title Saturday with an impressive 65-47 win over Lake Country Lutheran (20-5).
“We knew this game was going to be a battle,” said CCHS coach Jeff Behrens. “They felt they deserved the No. 2 seed and home court advantage and wanted to prove something against us.”
To get to the final, Catholic Central took care of business Friday night with a 61-28 win over Madison Abundant Life-Country Day School. CCHS jumped out to a 24-2 after the first quarter and coasted the rest of the way.
“We kept shuttling players in and out, worked on a couple of different things but made sure everyone played but also got some rest because we knew that we had to be ready for the next game.”
Allie Hocking and Sophie Foote scored 16 and 15 points, respectively, against Abundant Life, but Amanda Koenen and Erin Bittmann added eight points each while Kelsey Robers had seven.
In the championship game, the Lady ’Toppers got two quick baskets, one each from Bittmann and Hocking. However, the LCL press forced three straight turnovers that led to five quick points and LCL’s first lead of the game.
The score then seesawed over the balance of the quarter, ending with Lake Country leading 13-11.
A basket off the opening possession of the quarter pushed the LCL lead to four, but Hocking responded with a pair of baskets. When Bittmann hit a turnaround jumper from the left, the Lady ’Toppers had regained the lead.
LCL got the lead back briefly, but Catholic Central then started a run. Hocking had a conventional 3-point play to key a 14-2 stretch for the Lady ’Toppers, who took a 32-22 lead into the halftime intermission.
LCL trimmed the CCHS lead to six points two and a half minutes into the third quarter, but Bittmann hit a pair of free throws to push the score to 40-32. Hocking took over from there, draining a three at the top of the key, then adding another from the right elbow.
She then drove the lane for a layup to extend CCHS’s lead to 16 in just one minute of play.
LCL finally stopped the run, but Hocking closed out the quarter with yet another 3-pointer from the left elbow, leaving CCHS in command at 51-35 heading into the final quarter.
Lake Country came out hard to open the fourth quarter, scoring seven quick points. Foote split a pair of free throws to get the Lady ’Toppers going again. Hocking followed with a putback and CCHS was in control again.
Hocking led all scorers with her season-high mark of 28 points, while Foote added 21 points.
“Allie was terrific again tonight,” said Behrens. “I think we did a nice job of moving the ball on offense and a decent job on defense, where we kept switching defenses during the game. I think it confused them and caused a few turnovers.”
Next up for Catholic Central will be Heritage Christian tonight at Waukesha West High School at 7 p.m.
Heritage is ranked sixth in the Division 5 polls, and won the Midwest Classic Conference-South Division.
“We’ve played them twice this season and lost both times,” Behrens said. “Going into the first game, we knew they were a press, press, press team and we didn’t handle it well.
“The second time we played them, we did a much better job,” he added. “We need to control the tempo by handling their press and taking good shots. The girls are playing with confidence, understand the game plan.
“Now we just need to execute it.”
Editor’s note: The print edition of the Standard Press has the wrong byline. We apologize for the error.
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