Girls lose to Tremper
By Michael S. Hoey
Correspondent
The Badger High School boys basketball team won its Southern Lakes Conference opener against Union Grove on Dec. 4 but lost a non-conference match-up with Division 2 powerhouse Seymour on Saturday.
The Badgers (1-2, 1-0 SLC) beat the Broncos 57-48 despite missing leading scorer Jake Berhorst and 6-foot-7-inch Austin Jackson because of injury. The Badgers built up a 29-21 half-time lead and held the Broncos (2-1, 0-1) at bay in the second half to get the win.
Mason DuMez led the Badgers with 20 points. Chase Kruger added 17. Jack Pettit led Union Grove with nine.
The Badgers dropped their match-up with Seymour (2-1) 83-44. Seymour took a 31-23 lead into halftime and pulled away in the second half, outscoring Badger 52-21. DuMez led the Badgers with 25 points, almost entirely from behind the three-point arc. DuMez made eight out of nine three-point attempts but got little offensive support. With Berhorst and Jackson still out, no one else had more than four points.
Girls fall to 0-4
The Badger girls lost a non-conference game at home to Kenosha Tremper 55-53 on Dec. 1. Tremper (2-1) built up a nine-point half-time lead, but Badger came back in the second half. Sam Tisa led the way with 21 points. Chloe Kleeman added 10. Janelle Caira had 21 for Union Grove, and Amari Whittington had 17.
Coach David Jooss said losing sophomore Olivia Deering to a knee injury in the team’s first game against Milton has been tough to overcome. Deering was slated to be the team’s starting two-guard and provided a lot of defensive intensity.
“We were so proud of how she rehabilitated her first ACL all the way back to starting on varsity. I know she can do it again,” Jooss said.
Jooss said he is proud of how his team battled back from 10 points down, and the girls definitely played better in the second half.
“I think we are improving,” Jooss said. “We rebounded the ball better this game and had better defensive effort in the second half.”
Jooss said Tisa had a great game with her 21 points and 13 rebounds.
“I thought she really stepped up for us and was dominant in the second half,” he said.
Jooss said the team needs to have more consistency in intensity at practice and throughout games.
That might have showed up Dec. 4 in a road 59-36 loss to Union Grove (3-0, 1-0). The Broncos ran out to a 28-11 halftime lead. The Badgers got the offense going a little in the second half but were still outscored 31-25.
Tisa again led the way with 17 points. Jenn Freeman added eight. Frankie Pettit led the Broncos with 13. Brooklyn Bull added 12, and Alyssa Kus had 10. Union Grove made 10 three-pointers on 33 attempts.
The Badgers played at Wilmot on Tuesday.
Swim off to fast start
The Badger co-op swim team began its season by taking first place at the Southern Lakes Conference Relays at Badger on Dec. 3 with 185 points. Elkhorn finished second with 177.
First-place finishes for Badger included:
- 400-yard medley relay team of Zach Kieszkowski, Douglas Clements, Takuma Suzuki and Andrew Shane, 4:18.28;
- 500-yard freestyle crescendo relay team of Shane, Paul Schulz, Logan Rogers and Emmett Matthews, 4:44.42;
- 400-yard freestyle relay team of Shane, Matthews, Rogers and Alex Laing, 3:40.45.
Second-place finishes for Badger included:
- 200-yard butterfly relay team of Shane, Matthews, Suzuki and Kieszkowski, 1:53.37;
- 400-yard backstroke relay team of Rogers, Matthews, Suzuki and Cameron Jaeger, 4:21.74;
- 300-yard breaststroke relay team of Suzuki, Kieszkowski, Jacob Stout and Vincient Divito, 3:46.88.
The Badgers finished second at the Delavan-Darien Comet Invitational on Saturday, a meet the team took sixth at last year. Badger scored 338 points, behind only Fort Atkinson’s 387.
Top finishes for Badger included:
- First in the 200-yard individual medley – Shane, 2:13.75;
- First in the 100-yard freestyle – Matthews, 52.79;
- Second in the 200-yard medley relay – Shane, Rogers, Matthews and Kieszowski, 1:50.82;
- Second in the 100-yard butterfly – Shane, 57.82;
- Second and third in the 500-yard freestyle – Matthews and Schulz;
- Third and fourth in the 100-yard backstroke – Rogers and Jaeger;
- Third in the 400-yard freestyle relay – Matthews, Schulz, Rogers and Shane, 3:42.68;
- Third in the 200-yard freestyle – Schulz, 2:08.18.
