WEST SALEM — Once the Aquinas High School girls basketball team turned up its defense and accepted some scoring balance, a close nonconference game against West Salem began to change.
The Panthers did a good job of defending senior Sammy Davis early on Saturday — and really didn’t do a bad job throughout the game — but turnovers eventually got more players involved in the offense, and that eventually led to a 68-38 victory for the Blugolds.
Davis didn’t get her first field goal until more than six minutes into the game, and West Salem was within 16-13 after that shot. But Aquinas scored on an Ava Fernholz 3-pointer after a steal, Liv Dickinson was fouled and hit two free throws after a steal, and Alaina Elias and Davis scored on breakaways soon after to quickly widen the gap for good.
“I feel like (West Salem coach Mike Malott) does a real good job of preparing his kids, and they tried to take Sam away,” Aquinas coach Dave Donarski said. “That’s gonna happen, and we are always preparing for different things.
“That helped get us going, and if you saw, we had really good balance and had a lot of kids step up and make shots when we needed them.”
Senior Madelynn Grossbach was a good example of that with three baskets in the first half. She made all of those shots in a span of 3 minutes, 21 seconds and two of them came when the Blugolds needed points with West Salem in the lead.
A 19-4 run through the middle of the first half was all Aquinas (10-1) needed for separation that it made permanent. West Salem (4-4) was buried — at times — under the Blugolds’ pressure defense and struggled to make shots when giving itself the opportunity.
Aquinas, which won its 10th game in a row, had 18 steals and didn’t allow West Salem to get very comfortable on a regular basis.
Davis finished with 19 points, eight rebounds and five steals, and Fernholz added 13 points, nine rebounds and six assists for the Blugolds, who are eighth in Division 3 in this week’s Bound Wisconsin/Zaleski Sports media poll.
The Panthers received a team-high 11 points from senior Josie Brudos and eight from sophomore Ava Hendrickson.
West Salem’s four losses have come to opponents — Aquinas, Central, Holmen, Caledonia — with a combined 32-7 record.
The Panthers host Coulee Conference-leading Arcadia (9-2, 4-0) on Thursday and are a half-game behind the Raiders in the conference standings.
The balance to which Donarski refers is evident with 10 players scoring at least two points and 10 getting at least one steal. The Blugolds next play Tomah (2-6, 1-0) in an MVC game Tuesday at the Reinhart Athletic Complex.
