WOLSEY – Wolsey-Wessington pulled away from an eight-point halftime lead and claimed a 53-27 non-conference girls’ basketball win over Aberdeen Christian on Tuesday night.
The Knights found themselves in foul trouble early on and it forced Christian coach Matt Rohrbach to try new things.
“The first quarter was a little brutal because Ari (Johnson) picked up two (fouls), Jolie (Fogarty) picked up two, and Sophia (Eichler) picked up two. So, we were kind of trying to mix and match matchups,” said Rohrbach. “You know we talk about worst-case scenario, and unfortunately worst-case scenario happened.”
Even though Fogarty picked up a pair of early fouls, she still led the Knights with a dozen points.
As the Warbirds began to hone in on the junior, the Knights tried to spread the ball around to cause more problems. They found some success in the second quarter as Johnson was able to get to the free throw line and nailed both of her free throws, and Eichler laid in a shot.
“Jolie was kind of getting hounded a bit in the first and second quarter, and we tried to talk about some of the things that they were doing,” said Rohrbach. “Really just some X’s and O’s stuff that we’re trying to do getting Jolie involved and getting the post involved.”
With plenty of options to defend against on the Warbirds’ side of the court, the Knights felt they did a good job executing their gameplan, but were plagued by 32 turnovers in the contest.
“We knew they were gonna try to take advantage of some of their quickness, at least from a guard perspective and we just tried to keep them away from that as much as we possibly could, and I thought for the most part, we really did that,” said Rohrbach. “We had a hard time keeping our turnovers down and fast break points they definitely beat us … so I think that game was kind of won with us not taking care of the basketball.”
Maria Nelson topped the Warbirds with 18 points. Shae Uttecht added nine, and Kendal Uttecht followed with eight.
Despite Wolsey-Wessington widening the gap in the second half, the Knights kept working on their craft.
“Really the mindset doesn’t change whether it’s first quarter, second quarter, third quarter. In the game, we’re gonna continue to work hard, get better, and show a little bit of a fight,” Rohrbach said. “I felt like the girls really did that for the most part. Even though things got out of hand there in the third quarter.”
Aberdeen Christian will host Gettysburg Thursday night in the Christian School gym as part of a girls-boys doubleheader.
ABERDEEN CHRISTIAN (0-7): Ari Johnson 1 2-2 4, Jolie Fogarty 3 4-6 12, Molleigh Hofer 1 0-0 2, Sophia Eichler 1 3-6 5, Jacie Fogarty 1 0-0 3, Lucy Jones 0 1-4 1. Totals 7 10-18 27.
WOLSEY-WESSINGTON (4-4): Taylor Eichstadt 1 2-2 4, Maria Nelson 7 4-6 18, Shae Uttecht 4 0-0 9, Payton Peterson 1 0-0 2, Kendal Uttecht 4 0-2 8, Lily Toupal 1 0-0 2, Raya Toupal 1 2-3 4, Preslie Jensen 2 2-2 6. Totals 21 10-15 53.
Aberdeen Christian 4 13 22 27
Wolsey-Wessington 6 21 36 53
3-point field goals – Jolie Fogarty 2, Jacie Fogarty; S. Uttecht. Fouled out – S. Uttecht. Total fouls – Aberdeen Christian 15; Wolsey-Wessington 17. Turnovers – Aberdeen Christian 32; Wolsey-Wessington 13.
