The Lady Bulldogs hosted Darlington Tuesday night and took their first win of the season, 40-38, in a game that had fans sitting on the edge of their seats in the final moments.
The Bulldogs were able to regain the ball repeatedly from missed shots at the Redbirds basket during the first half. They did not waste the opportunity to bring the ball home to score. Nor did repeated fouling that handed the ball back to their hosts help Darlington. The Redbirds’ struggle helped Boscobel to an early lead at the end of the first half, 27-5.
The Redbirds regrouped and offered tougher play in the second half, outscoring the Bulldogs 33-13, but it was not enough to take the game in the end.
“Darlington’s Chelsea Golackson hit a three with 5.2 seconds remaining to tie the game,” recounted coach Jason Hill. “Leah Wacker scored a break-away layup off a long pass from Mackenzie Fischer at the buzzer for the win.”
Leading in scoring for the Bulldogs were Leah Wacker with 19 points, Hailey Bray with seven, and Danielle Ernst with six. Five of Bray’s points were made from the free throw line, out of six attempts.
Mineral Point
It was a different story for the Lady Bulldogs in their previous game against Mineral Point. Boscobel took a heavy defeat at the hands of the Pointers last Thursday, Dec. 10.
“We ran into a very good Mineral Point team,” Hill said. “This is a team that has a great chance to be playing in Green Bay at the end of the year. It was tough sledding for us all night.”
The Bulldogs got away from the fundamentals, which the coach has been drilling them on. This created difficulties, as they faced a heavily competitive team that already leads the conference, 3-0.
The Pointers were able to produce a sizable lead early on, finishing the second half 45-13 over Boscobel. The Bulldog defense kicked up play, but was unable to stop Mineral Point, which outscored Boscobel 33-10 in the second half to end the game, 78-23.
“Mineral Point had some nice size and it caused us to rush a lot of shots,” the coach noted. “However, when we did stick to our fundamentals, good things happened. We just need to be more consistent in that department. We did handle the press better than the last few games, so that was a plus. There is no going back to the drawing board, we will just continue to work on and improve each day.”
Leading in scoring were Hailey Bray with seven points and Sydney Williams and Leah Wacker with four each.
Boscobel is currently 1-2 in conference play and 1-6 overall.
The Lady Bulldogs will travel to Riverdale on Friday for conference play. They host Belmont next Tuesday, Dec. 22 at 7:30 p.m.
