Panther Girls Fall to Merrill

By Robert Whitmire
The SPASH girls basketball team fell to Merrill Tuesday night by a final score of 68-43, dropping their record to 6-9 overall and 2-3 in the Wisconsin Valley Conference.
Merrill raced out to a 13-0 lead with 9:33 left in the first half and increased that gap to 21-4 at the 5:18 mark before taking a 30-11 lead into the halftime break.
Sophmore Maggie Negaard led the panther scoring with 19 points. Taylor Beadles chipped in 11. Freshman Madisyn Rogan added 5 points. Other Panther scorers included Brooke Tuszka with four, and Halle Gregorich and Rachel Sullivan added two points to round out the Panther scoring.
Maddix Bonnell led the Bluejays with 24 points.
The Panthers hit the road for two games including a match-up with conference leading D.C. Everest
on Friday, Jan. 15 in Schofield followed by a trip to Wausau East Friday, Jan. 22. Both games tip off at 7:30 PM.