The Three Lakes-Phelps girls basketball team finished a busy three-game week with a contest against the NLC-undefeated Laona-Wabeno Lady Rebels in Three Lakes last Friday.
It ended with the Lady Jays grinding out a defensive 32-30 victory over the then-NLC-undefeated Rebels.
With the teams learning their playoff seeding this past Sunday, last week was the final chance to boost the resume for seeding purposes. The Lady Jays did just that with the home victory.
Besides the game against Laona-Wabeno, Three Lakes-Phelps (13-6 overall and 5-3) fell in a back-to-back early in the week to Lena and Crandon. That broke the stretch of six wins in seven games for the Lady Jays.
After the Rebels and Bluejays played a tight contest back in early December, the two teams did it again near the end of the regular season.
“The kids were so excited. They knew we were going to have a big crowd. They were ready,” said Head Coach Michele Brown after the victory against the Rebels. “They worked hard the last couple of days since that loss to Crandon. They came out ready to play, and it showed.”
It was a defensive battle from the jump, as the game sat at a 4-2 Three Lakes-Phelps lead five minutes into the game. The Lady Jays extended that to 7-2 before Laona-Wabeno was forced to call a timeout with about nine minutes left in the first half to limit the momentum.
The Rebels threw their first counter punch of the game with an 8-0 run out of the timeout to take a 10-7 lead, before an 8-0 run for the Jays over the last four minutes gave them a 15-10 halftime lead.
The score went back and forth over the span of the second half, with TL-P grabbing a 22-14 lead with about 12 minutes to play in the second half. Three offensive rebounds and a Rylee Glembin floater gave the Jays that advantage.
The Jays hauled in 48 rebounds on the night, 12 of them coming on the offensive end.
“Our biggest thing was some offensive rebounding,” said Brown. We had some clutch offensive rebounds and putbacks, especially in the second half.”
At about the nine-minute mark, Three Lakes led 27-21 and then was stuck in neutral for the next five minutes of game time, as the Rebels cut the lead down to two, 29-27, with about four minutes to play. The only basket over that stretch came from senior Paige Brafford on an easy layup.
Laona-Wabeno got fouled with six seconds left and .5 seconds left and ended up going 0-4 from the charity stripe down the stretch in the tight 32-30 game.
“Tonight’s going to be the fuel that keeps us moving forward,” stated Brown.
Williams led the team with 11 points, but it was the rebounding that dominated the stat sheet. Sophomore Malia Szews led with 12 total rebounds, 11 for Williams and 10 for Brafford.
The Jays started the week with two close losses, one being 43-34 to a ranked D5 Lena team at home last Monday. The Wildcats held Three Lakes-Phelps in check offensively in the first half, holding the home team to just 11 points while scoring 24. The Bluejays outscored Lena in the second half 23-19, but it wasn’t enough to clinch the victory. Despite the loss, Three Lakes held Lena to just 25% shooting from the floor and 15% from the 3-point line. The Wildcats got Three Lakes to foul often, as they took 31 trips to the free-throw line and made 13 shots.
The Bluejays also fell to Crandon 46-40 the following day on the road.
In the final week of the regular season, the Jays went to Antigo and hosted Butternut this past Monday and Tuesday. They will then finish the regular season at Suring this Thursday, Feb. 19, at 7:15 p.m.
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