Girls fall to Brodhead in regional opener
By Dan Truttschel
Correspondent
The first time the East Troy High School girls basketball team faced Brodhead this season, it was the Trojans who had all the answers.
In the rematch, however, it was the Cardinals who passed the test.
Brodhead held the Trojans to just 12 points in the first half and took control from there to end East Troy’s season, 58-41, in a Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association Division 3 regional opener.
East Troy closed the year at 10-13 overall. Brodhead fell 64-33 to the state’s top-ranked team, Whitewater, in the regional semifinal Feb. 23.
Finding openings for its offense to get on track proved to be a tall order all night, East Troy coach Jeff Brown said.
“They defended us really well,” he said. “They knocked away our cutters. We had trouble to get into almost any offense, and when we got shots, we didn’t shoot very well.
“You have to give a lot of credit to Brodhead. They were really physically strong bumping our cutters.”
And that’s not to say the outcome came down to the officiating, Brown said – that wasn’t the Trojans’ main issue.
“I thought the refs did a nice job calling the game,” he said. “We knew it would be called a little bit differently.”
Another change from East Troy’s 54-47 win in the regular season, Brown said, is that his team couldn’t get Brodhead’s top offensive weapons into foul trouble.
That was the case the first time around, as the Trojans held Brodhead’s leading scorer, Erin Nyhus, without a point – in the rematch, she had 14.
“We did a pretty good job on Erin this time, but we couldn’t stop their inside game this time because that kid wasn’t in foul trouble this time, she was on the floor,” Brown said.
Brodhead put the game away with a 38-29 scoring edge in the second half, as the Trojans just couldn’t get on track, Brown said.
“We could never really get going,” he said. “We never had that one spurt. I never felt like we were going to get quite over the hump, and that’s because Brodhead guarded us so well.”
Sophomores Erin Rice and Mackenzie Lindow again led the way, as Rice had 12 points and five rebounds, followed by Lindow with 10.
Those two were steady performers all season, Brown said.
“They leave it all out there,” he said. “They’re competitors. They’re competitors in other sports. They’re just not going to quit. They’re going to fight.”
Samantha Betley added six points and four rebounds for the Trojans, while Maddie Rosin had a team-high four assists.
The loss ended the East Troy playing careers of seniors Callie Vogel, Kaitlyn O’Connell, Heather Vivian, Rosin, Kayla Casper and Ashley Weber.
Those six will be tough to replace, Brown said.
“I thought they were really good teammates to people,” he said. “When you bring younger kids up, you never know how the upperclassmen are going to treat underclassmen, and they were awesome teammates to them from day one.
“I think that shows you their character, and that’s a pretty good life lesson to be able to work as a group. I’m going to miss all six of them.”
As for the program itself, Brown was pleased to see his team take another step forward, as East Troy improved from a nine-win season last year and six two years before.
“I thought we were better this year,” he said. “We got better as the year went on. … A lot of times, the second time we played teams, either we improved or beat them.”
Results of All-Rock Valley Conference voting and a statistical wrap up of the season will run in a future edition.
