The Oriole girls varsity basketball team is back on track.
Meeting Glenwood City Saturday at Eau Claire, they took home a 65-27 win, ending a three game losing streak as they look to move forward this season. The three losses came against Owen-Withee (48-38), Regis (80-50), and Fall Creek (49-45), following season opener wins against Wausau East and Ladysmith.
With the team now ranked sixth in the Cloverbelt, Oriole girls varsity head basketball coach Ryan Wundrow shared more on how things have gone so far.
“We have really made some great improvements since the beginning of the year,” he said. “We have a lot to celebrate. It was nice to be in a close competitive game on the road. Fall Creek has a loud gym at times and can be a tough environment to play in. We need to be able to take care of the ball, rebound, and make free throws if we are going to win close games. We did a great job in the first half and had a 14 point lead because we did all those things but we play in a very tough conference and teams are not going to quit at halftime. To their credit Fall Creek came out with a lot of intensity in the second half and wiped our lead away pretty quickly. We didn’t shoot as well and gave them some easy buckets off of turnovers. It was a great experience for our young girls and one that will only make them better. Learning to play under pressure is a privilege and I look forward to getting better with this group as the season moves on. Caitlen Ketterhagen and Vaida Chwala led us with 10 points each and Kendall Sikora chipped in 9. We have had some really balanced scoring all year which makes us hard to defend. Alaina Nitz had 10 rebounds and Ella Nitz had 8.
“We turned around and played Saturday at the Sonnentag Center in Eau Claire against Glenwood City at 8:30 AM. I was really proud of our girls how they bounced back from a tough defeat the night before. We got an early lead and never looked back. We again were very balanced in scoring and won 65-27. 11 girls scored in the game and we went 10/14 from the FT line. We used the afternoon to buy gifts for some needy families in our community. We have a great group of kids that are fun to watch compete. We play Thorp this week at home on Thursday.”
Game start for Thursday’s game against Thorp is 7:00 p.m.