Watertown girls fall at Wisco

Saturday, January 10, 2009 12:07 AM CST

MILWAUKEE - An 8-0 run to end the third quarter propelled Wisconsin Lutheran's girls basketball team to a 49-41 Wisconsin Little Ten Conference win over Watertown Friday.

Watertown (4-6, 3-3 in conference) led 23-21 at halftime but Wisco (8-4, 4-1) used the big run to erase that two-point lead and take a 36-30 lead into the fourth quarter that held up.

“We played well tonight,” Watertown girls basketball coach Todd Hoffman said. “We had a very steady game. We had our fewest turnovers of the season, we shot free throws better Š we played a solid ball game.

“The one hiccup that changed everything around, the one thing we told our team that they like to do best is transition basketball. There was an 8-0 run strictly off fast break that they just blew by us.”

Watertown made it close in the fourth. After the Goslings forced a turnover in the backcourt, senior guard Christine McFarland converted a three-point play with 3 1/2 minutes to go to cut it to 39-37.

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The Goslings forced another turnover on the next possession but missed a 3 with 2:45 to go.

“From there, they broke our press and hit a couple free throws to extend it to the big margin at the end that it was,” Hoffman said. “It was a tight game.”

Junior guard Erienne Lauersdorf led Watertown with a game-high 15 points. Junior Leanna Lillge added 11 and junior Maddie Emme added six.

“Besides Erienne's 3-pointer, we did not get any outside scoring,” Hoffman said. “In that run in the third and fourth quarters, we had several good looks from the perimeter and didn't make any of them.

“The real change in the game came in the third. They switched to a zone and they got their run when we missed outside shots and they got long rebounds. That's where they got into their transition game. In the first half, when we missed, it would be in the paint and they would get the rebound underneath.

“All we would have had to do was hit one or two of those 3-point attempts and we would have been playing from the front late in the game instead of playing two possessions down.”

Senior guard Krissy Day led Wisco's balanced attack with 11 points.

“They have very good balance,” Hoffman said. “They have had that all year and they were a quicker ball team than we were. That's why they got that run on us.”

Watertown hosts DeForest on Tuesday.

JV falls, freshmen win: Watertown's junior varsity lost. Watertown's freshmen won 50-36. Carlee Schuhmacher scored 17 points for the Goslings. Kayla Haberkorn had 14 of her 16 points in the second half.

WISCONSIN LUTHERAN 49,

WATERTOWN 41

Watertown 11 12 7 11 - 41

Wis. Lutheran 11 10 15 13 - 49

Watertown (fg-ft-tp) - Lillge 4-3-11, McFarland 1-1-3, Lauersdorf 7-0-15, Smith 1-0-2, McPherson 1-0-2, Emme 2-2-6, TenHaken 1-0-2. Totals 17 6-8 41.

Wisconsin Lutheran (fg-ft-tp) - Day 5-1-11, Fischer 1-1-3, Burczyk 3-2-8, Ebeling 4-1-9, De Noyer 3-0-6, Johnson 3-2-10, Frey 1-0-2. Totals 20 7-11 49.

3-point goals - W, Lauersdorf; WL, Johnson (2).

Total fouls - W 13, WL 6.