SPASH Girls Fall to DePere
By Ken McKenzie
The DePere Lady Redbirds opened fast and never looked back Saturday as they rolled over the SPASH Lady Panthers, 76-52 in Sentry Classic opening day action.
DePere put four players in double figures and were dominant at times while adding to their margin in each quarter. DePere’s solid post player Sarah Kuehn got things going with left hand hook from the lane to open the scoring and her teammates Maggie Miller added a trey and Carly Cerrato added a left side drive to post a 7-0 margin and forcing an early SPASH timeout in attempt to break the string.
Matching baskets until inside two minutes in the frame, DePere then closed with nine points, including seven straight free throws without a miss to take the 27-13 first quarter lead. Taylor Beadles drove the right side to open the second quarter scoring for SPASH but DePere more than answered as Jami Palubicki hit a trey, then added a layup on a breakout and another left side drive, with baskets by Jessie Rabas and a triple by Carly Cerrato pushing the lead to 41-17 before SPASH tallied the final seven points of the half on hoops by Morgan Drake off a dish from Hannah Worzella and a basket by Rachel Sulivan before Worzella added a three-pointer as the Lady Panthers closed the half trailing 41-24.
DePere got a power basket by their center before SPASH got a put back basket by freshman Maggie Negaard and a rebound hoop by Taylor Beadles to cut the lead to 43-29. SPASH added six points including a jumper and a trey by Brooke Brandt but with DePere comfortably up 55-35 to end the third frame.
SPASH hit four of six from the charity stripe in the early fourth before Maggie Negaard hit a pair of treys and added another hoop while Hannah Worzella added one more three-point shot before the final horn.
Maggie Negaard led the SPASH team with 13 points with Taylor Beadles adding an even dozen.
SPASH returns to action Sunday night in more Girls’ National play at the Sentry Classic when they face Green Bay Southwest at 5:15 p.m. and then return to Wisconsin Valley Conference action in hosting Wausau West on Tuesday, January 6.