By Dan Truttschel
Correspondent
With a young and improving team, there’s certainly nothing lost by taking on some better competition.
And that’s just what the East Troy High School girls squad did Feb. 4 – they didn’t pull out a win, but plenty of lessons were learned along the way.
East Troy hosted Division 1 foe Badger, and for a half, the Trojans were right there, but the visitors turned a five-point halftime lead into a 59-40 nonconference win.
The loss dropped the Trojans to 10-8 overall. East Troy took its 6-6 Rock Valley Conference record into a home game Tuesday night against visiting Edgerton Tuesday night.
Results of that matchup were unavailable by press time.
East Troy trailed 25-20 at halftime Saturday, thanks to some solid efforts on both ends of the floor, coach Jeff Brown said.
“We played pretty good defense the first half and made some shots early to stay with them,” he said.
When Badger turned to its 6-foot-1 post player, Courtney Oomens, the Trojans had a difficult time stopping her, Brown said.
Adding to the struggle was the absence of Kayla Casper, who rolled her ankle, Brown said.
“We had to get the zone packed around those bigger kids that (Badger) has,” Brown said. “They (also) made some threes. We tried to stop one thing, and you have to give them credit, they made their threes and it opened up another (weapon) for them.”
Badger finished the night with 10 3-pointers, while East Troy made six.
Even in defeat, there was plenty to be gained from the loss, Brown said.
“They were just able to wear us down,” he said. “They were bigger (than us), and sometimes you have to understand that you have to play a little tougher inside. It’s a learning experience all the way around.”
Mackenzie Lindow led the Trojans with 15 points and six rebounds, followed by Erin Rice with 14 points and six rebounds. Callie Vogel grabbed seven rebounds and Maddie Rosin had four assists.
Tight win in opener
East Troy opened its week with a 41-39 RVC win over visiting Jefferson last Thursday night. The win avenged a 15-point loss to the Eagles earlier this season.
The Trojans built a 23-13 halftime lead before Jefferson rallied to tighten things up in the second half.
“That was a nice win for us,” Brown said. “The kids kind of zeroed on that one (as a game) that we could get. We played really good defense the first half and didn’t turn the ball over, so we got a lot of shots.”
Rice led the way with 17 points and seven rebounds. Casper added seven points and 10 rebounds, followed by Rosin with six points and Lindow with five points, five rebounds and five assists.
Following Tuesday’s game with Edgerton, the Trojans travel to McFarland Friday night for a 7:15 p.m. RVC matchup with the Spartans.
Heading into games this week, Whitewater, the state’s top-ranked Division 3 squad, continues to lead the North Division standings at 13-0, followed by McFarland at 11-2 and Edgerton at 9-3. East Troy is next at 6-6, followed by Jefferson at 4-9 and Evansville at 1-12.
With four games left in the regular season, the Trojans already have surpassed last year’s total victory mark of nine – another sign that things are heading in the right direction, Brown said.
“I give credit to these kids,” he said. “They’ve bought into the mantra that we want to get better every day and see where we end up. They’re great kids to coach. It’s nice to have 10 wins (at this point).”
