Trojans drop game North, fall to 6-4
By Dan Truttschel
Correspondent
With the length of a high school basketball season, there’s bound to be some ups and downs for any team.
It’s how that group responds that will tell the story in the end.
The East Troy High School girls found the going rough in the first game of 2017 Tuesday night, as the Trojans dropped a 35-33 nonconference decision at Waukesha North.
East Troy fell to 6-4 overall.
As the score indicated, offense was a struggle all night, East Troy coach Jeff Brown said.
“Offensively, we just didn’t take care the ball very well,” he said. “We turned the ball over far too many times. I don’t know if we got frustrated that we started the ball over and it started to snowball even more.
“We didn’t shoot very well. We didn’t make a lot of baskets, just plain and simple. We didn’t play very well offensively.”
East Troy led 21-17 at halftime, but scored just 12 points in the final 18 minutes, as North rallied for the two-point win.
Mackenzie Lindow led the Trojans with 17 points, followed by Maddie Rosin with five and Erin Rice and Callie Vogel each with four.
Brown hopes his team can erase Wednesday’s struggles as it moves forward from here.
“I’m hoping it’s (just) one of those games, but you never know,” he said. “Sometimes, the season goes in cycles where you play really well and then you sort of play poorly (at times).
“We didn’t shoot the ball very well against Messmer (on Dec. 28) and we didn’t shoot the ball very well last night, but you don’t get a lot of shots when you turn it over.”
If there was a highlight in the loss, it was the Trojans’ defense, Brown said, which held North to a manageable 35 points.
East Troy’s play on that end of the floor has been consistent for most of the season, Brown said.
“Defensively, we’ve been pretty good all year,” he said. “We don’t give up a ton of points. We mix up defenses, and I think the kids figure it out.
“It’s sort of impressive when you don’t score that they play that good of defense. Usually, you sort of mope around when you don’t score. It’s no fun to just play defense, but give them some credit for being a little tougher that way.”
Brown said he’s looking forward to getting back to a normal schedule now that the holidays are done.
“We need to get going again,” he said. “The schedule is a little goofy during Christmas. You’re on some days, you’re off some days. You have kids who are on vacation who come back and need to get back in the swing of things.
“Palmyra can score pretty well, so that scares me a little bit. We have to play some defense.”
Trojans beat Messmer
East Troy held a five-point halftime lead and never looked back in a 43-36 nonconference victory Dec. 28 at Milwaukee Messmer.
Rice had 15 points and eight rebounds to lead the way, followed by Lindow with 14 points and five rebounds. Kayla Casper added seven points and 11 rebounds, followed by Rosin with six points and four steals and Vogel with seven rebounds.
