ONALASKA — Aquinas High School senior Sammy Davis was a force wherever she played Thursday night.
If the Blugolds needed her to post up, she did with success. If they needed a turnover, she was there at the top of the 1-3-1 zone to make it happen.
In between, the Bradley University commit controlled the boards on both ends of the floor during a physical and competitive game against upset-minded Onalaska.
The Hilltoppers were able to handle some of what has made Aquinas unbeatable in the MVC for the past decade, but Davis was not one of them as the Blugolds posted a 66-51 win on John Shelton Court at the Chuck Deeth Fieldhouse.
Davis finished with 31 points, nine rebounds and six steals as Aquinas (7-1 overall, 3-0 MVC) pushed their conference winning streak to 117 games and won for the seventh straight time this season.
“She was really good tonight,” Aquinas coach Dave Donarski said of Davis, who is averaging 25.8 points and 10.4 rebounds per game. “She is critical to what we do, and while she was dynamite on offense tonight, it really is defensively where she sparks us.”
The Blugolds, who are eighth in Division 3 of this week’s Bound Wisconsin/Zaleski Sports media poll, withstood a 10-point Onalaska run at the end of the first half and gradually pulled away by forcing timely turnovers and spreading the ball around more in the second half.
Davis scored 19 points in the first half and directly turned four offensive rebounds into eight points. She then helped get Aquinas on track in the second half when two early steals resulted in five points.
Onalaska (5-3, 1-1) cut a double-figure deficit to two points by the end of the first half but couldn’t get any closer after halftime as the Blugolds turned up the defense.
“We had to come out (in the second half) and stay composed,” Davis said. “We were getting a little jittery there and weren’t playing the Aquinas Blugold way.
“I think we got to a point there where we were, ‘We’re up by a lot and are fine,’ but teams come back, and you have to be ready for that.”
Aquinas finally put Onalaska away with a 12-0 run that answered an Olivia Passehl 3-pointer that had the Hilltoppers within 49-45 with 8 minutes, 31 seconds left.
Senior Alaina Elias was the workhorse during the 12-point run and converted three fast breaks during it. A steal and layup by Elias, who finished with 14 points, gave Aquinas its 61-45 advantage with 5:06 to go.
Juniors Adelaide Bezemek started the run with a 3-pointer from the left corner, and junior Eva Willenbring added a 3 between a couple of Elias hoops along the way.
“I thought we had a really big contribution from Adi Bezemek with the big 3, and then Eva Willenbring hit another big one.
“Alaina Elias was a bullet in the second half and kept getting to the rim with tough finishes. There were so many pieces to that game that were great for us.”
The Hilltoppers were led by sophomore Kayla Ketelhut’s 14 points and Natalie Marso’s 11.
Marso started Onalaska’s 10-point run to close out the first half with two free throws. The Hilltoppers made 13 of 14 attempts from the foul line in the first half.
Ketelhut made a 3 during that run, which was finished when Ketelhut recorded a steal and fed sophomore Kenzie Bauer for a buzzer-beating layup to cut what was a 12-point deficit on two occasions to 34-32.
Onalaska continued its battle for 10 more minutes in the second half before Aquinas was able to pull away.
“Obviously, they keep getting tougher because of the conference streak, and teams are going to give us their best effort,” Davis said in reference to a streak that began with a 67-39 win at Logan on Dec. 15, 2015. “Everyone wants to beat us.”
