The Lady Bulldogs showed that they are once again poised to be one of the best basketball teams in the area with a whopping 63-26 win over Merrill last Friday at the Waupaca Invite.
New London outscored the Blue Jays 23-3 in the first quarter mostly by junior forward Tara Knapstein scoring 10 of her 15 game points.
New London went into halftime with a 42-10 lead.
The third quarter was a little slow for the Bulldogs but they got the rhythm going in the fourth quarter when junior guard Coral Managan knocked down a three-point basket followed by another three-point attempt by sophomore guard/forward Brenna Heise. She was fouled on the play resulting in three-free throw shots sinking all three.
Top Scorers were Tara Knapstein with 15 points followed by Coral Managan with 9 Points. The team went 6/13 for 46 percent on free throws. The team also finished with 21 field goals and five three-pointers.
Merrill 3 7 9 7 – 26
New London 23 19 7 14 – 63
Scoring summary:
Coral Managan 9, Brooke Fitzgerald 6, Knapstein 15, Bridget Pethke 3, Jessica Scott 3, Kayla Schuh 7, Paige Schlieve 4, Brenna Heise 5, Emily Steffanus 6, Heather Paalman 5. Totals 26 6-12 63. Total fouls: 20. Three-pointers: Managan 2, Pethke, Scott, Schuh.
Waupaca victory
The game started out a bit slow for the Bulldogs who were trailing by three points at the end of the first quarter, but they geared up to outscore the Comets 18-8 in the second quarter for a 24-17 lead going into halftime.
The Bulldogs then erupted in the second half outscoring the Comets by an even bigger margin putting up 32 points. On the other side of the court the Bulldogs used some stingy defense to limit the Comets to 13 points in the second half.
Three players had double digit points for the Bulldogs with Tara Knapstein leading the group with 13 with Kayla Schuh following at 11 and Brenna Heise with 10.
The team also did very good on free throws hitting five of eight for 62%. The Lady Bulldogs put up five three-pointers, two from Brenna Heise.
Kristen Fuss led the Comets with 10 points followed by Abby Lazers with five. This was the sixth straight victory for the Bulldogs over the Comets within the past five years. The Bulldogs improve to 2-0 and hosted Little Chute on Tuesday. New London will host a huge showdown game this Saturday with Eastern Valley Conference and highly ranked Division 3 Freedom.
Tipoff for JV is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. and Varsity is scheduled to follow at 3 p.m. See next week’s County Post East for results. New London JV also participated in the tournament winning the championship game by defeating Waupaca Friday 41-20 and defeating Merrill Saturday 41-22 to improve their record 2-0.
New London 6 18 14 18 – 56 (2-0)
Waupaca 9 8 4 9 – 30 (1-1)
New London: Knapstein 13, Schuh 11, Heise 10, Schlieve 9, Pethke 5, Steffanus 3, Paalman 2, Scott 2, Fitzgerald 1. 3 pt: Heise 2, Pethke, Schuh, Steffanus. FTs: 8-5. Fouls: 21.
Waupaca: Fuss 10, Lazers 6, Littrel 5, Johnson 4, Barlow 3, Hoffman 1, Marringa 1. 3 pt: Lazers 2, Johnson. FTs: 29-16. Fouls: 10