By Tim Wester
Sports Correspondent
January basketball usually means the start of conference play for high school basketball teams.
But for Union Grove, it is more about team building.
The Broncos continued to work on team building this past week with back-to-back victories over Elkhorn and Racine Horlick Friday, Jan. 6 and Saturday, Jan 7, respectively.
“We just keep building chemistry in advance of the stretch run of the season,” Union Grove coach Rob Domagalski said. “Our record this year is about the same as it was at this point last year, so we have the same goal of developing our chemistry now so we can make another strong push like we did late last season.”
The Broncos (9-3, 4-2 SLC) certainly made a strong push in the second half against Racine Horlick, jumping out to an 18-point lead. Horlick, however, responded with a 14-0 run to close to within for with three minutes left. The Grove leaned on leaders Janelle Shiffler and Brooklyn Bull to build the lead back to 12 and seal the hard-fought 56-46 road victory.
Shiffler led the way with 21 points, while Bull had 12.
“Once we built our lead to 18, I thought we were in control for good, Domagalski said. “But before you knew it, Horlick was right back in it with just a few minutes to play.”
While Shiffler and Bull hit big shots, freshman Peyton Killberg provided a much-needed third scoring option with 10 clutch points.
“Brooklyn (Bull) and Janelle (Shiffler) need to score points like any team’s leading scorers, but anybody else on our team is capable of scoring for us, and Saturday it was Peyton who stepped up,” Domagalski said. “As a freshman, this is a learning experience for her, but every moment out there, you can see here gaining confidence. She hit couple nice three-pointers in the game.”
Shiffler scored a game-high 27 points to lead the Broncos to a commanding 68-16 over visiting Elkhorn. Bull also chipped in 20 for the Grove, who unleashed a vicious 39-4 second half run on the struggling Elks to preserve the jaw-dropping 52-point victory.
“We did what we were supposed to do that night,” Domagalski said. “We’ve been in games where we knew we were the better team and ended up not playing up to our standards, but after Elkhorn hit a couple early half court shots, our half-court pressure defense took control the rest of the way.”
After the Broncos opened a comfortable 29-12 halftime advantage, they only allowed four points the rest of the contest.
“We need everyone to contribute like they did in this game because there are going to be nights where Brooklyn and Janelle aren’t hitting their shots and we’ll need others to step up,” Domagalski said.
The Broncos will undoubtedly need everyone to be at their best this weekend with back-to-back road games starting tonight at rival Waterford and then at Prairie.
The Grove then travels to Lake Geneva Badger next Friday.
“This is a tough stretch of games for us,” Domagalski said. “It will be a huge test for us to see how we do, but we should be up to the challenge. This should also help us continue to build team chemistry.”
-
-
-
-
-