Polar Bears beat Papermakers
By Greg Seubert
On paper, it looked like the game of the season so far on the Fox Valley Association girls’ basketball schedule.
Hortonville and Kimberly came into their first of two FVA matchups Jan. 3 with a combined 18-0 record in their last 18 games and ranked in the top 10 in divisions 2 and 1, respectively.
However, Hortonville outscored the Papermakers 37-27 in the second half and improved to 8-0 in the FVA and 11-1 overall with a 71-53.
Kimberly led by six points twice before the Polar Bears ended the first half with a 9-2 run to take a 34-26 lead at the break. Macy McGlone scored all nine points and went on to lead all scorers with 21.
“She just battled,” coach Celeste Ratka said. “Things did not come easy and (Kimberly) worked their tail off making every catch hard, but she loves to compete. She’s a post player that’s not afraid of contact, which I absolutely love. She just loves to battle and that’s what she does every night for us.”
Kimberly eventually cut Hortonville’s lead to 36-35 on Marissa Murray’s three-pointer early in the second half, but Hortonville answered with an 8-0 run to go up by nine and the Papermakers never got any closer than six points the rest of the way.
Lexi Day hit three-pointers on two straight possessions with just over two minutes to go in the game. By then, Hortonville had pushed the lead to as many as 20 points.
“They had a couple easy points and we had a couple of careless turnovers,” Ratka said. “We talk about our response all the time. When adversity comes, it’s all about how you respond to it. Our response after those turnovers – Lexi coming down and hitting those big shots – was amazing.”
Day had 15 points to go with McGlone’s 21, while Morgan Draheim and Kamy Peppler added nine each.
“I love the way our kids competed,” Ratka said. “We’re talking about toughness and how tough players win. I was really proud of the toughness that we demonstrated throughout the night.”
MaKenzie Drout and Maddy Schreiber led Kimberly with 14 and 13 points, respectively, as the Papermakers fell to 9-2 overall and 6-2 in conference play.
The two teams will meet again Thursday, Feb. 6, in Kimberly.
“We have a lot of respect for Kimberly’s program: their players, their coaches, what they do there,” Ratka said. “They are consistently winning championships and they’re somebody that we are always looking to get the win from. That’s affirming that we’re on the right track.
“It’s one win,” she added. “It’s early in the season and we have to keep raising the bar, stay hungry and make sure that we’re the best at the end.”