Pacelli Girls Fall to Zephrys 46-33
By Ken McKenzie
The second quarter defense unraveled just enough Friday night to put the Pacelli girls hoops team in a hole that they couldn’t crawl out of.
The result found the Lady Cardinals falling behind 26-15 at the half and eventually dropping their non-conference game with Saint Mary Central of Neenah, 46-33. Both teams came into this game with high expectations; trying to take advantage of extra holiday season practice but it was the visitors who seemingly took full advantage.
Pacelli benefited from a hoop and twin free throws from Sami Kay Shafranski and a field goal by Julia Grygleski to knot the score at 6-6 after eight minutes and the first regular game break. Pacelli then matched Central’s basket for basket with Katherine Mueller hitting three straight baskets to help keep the pace.
The teams battled to six ties in the first ten minutes of the game before Saint Mary Central went on a 14-3 run to end the half; giving them a cushion they would not relinquish on this night.The Zephrys’ seemed to know what they wanted to do with the ball and got some great looks in taking the ball inside and scoring with confidence while the Lady Cardinals seemed tentative; often stopping mid drive and leaving themselves out of position to shoot and struggling even to pass.
Julie Grygleski got a rebound put back score with 3:36 remaining in the half but Pacelli could only muster a single free throw the rest of the way to intermission. Meanwhile, Saint Mary Central rolled off nine consecutive points including a shot just before the horn to give them both confidence and margin enough to stake out their first win of the season.
The Lady Cardinals cut into the margin early in the third on scores by Christonna Shafranski, Kaitlin Rogers and Sami Kay Shafranski’s tally off an inbounds pass to Katherine Mueller who got the return pass to Sami Kay for the score to shave the margin to seven at 28-21. But that was as close as Pacelli could get as the Zephrys used consecutive hoops by their leading scorer (16) on this night, Elana Boyson to push the margin back to 11 at 32-21.
Katherine Mueller again added a put back basket inside the one minute mark but the Lady Cardinals then hit only one of four free throws to end the quarter trailing 34-26.
Pacelli looked to press their visitors in the fourth quarter but were unsuccessful as the Zephrys drove to the hole successfully on consecutive possessions midway through the quarter to push the lead back to an even dozen with three minutes to play.
Pacelli Scoring: Julia Grygleski 4, Katherine Mueller 8, Christonna Shafranski 5, Emma Kulick 1, Samantha Shafranski 13, Kaitlin Rogers 2.
The win got the visiting Zephrys their first win to move to 1-9 on the season while the Lady Cardinals fell for the 2-8, including seven consecutive losses. Next up for Pacelli is an away game at Manawa next Friday (Jan. 9) before returning for a home game on Tuesday, Jan. 13 when they host Weyauwega-Fremont in a 7:30 p.m. Central Wisconsin – Eight clash.
