LA CROSSE — Aquinas High School girls basketball coach Dave Donarski wasn’t thrilled with everything he saw from his players Tuesday night at the Reinhart Athletic Complex.
The Blugolds were stuck out of position defensively a few times too many for his liking, and that led to enough bursts for Platteville to hang around despite trailing consistently by double figures.
But Aquinas had enough scoring punch to keep the Hillmen at arm’s length and pull out an 81-70 nonconference victory over a team that entered Tuesday’s game with six wins in seven games and left with a 15-4 record.
“I think we are pretty decent at creating chaos, but at times, that chaos has us completely out of rotation,” Donarski said. “If we don’t get that one steal we are trying to get, we’re exposed.
“I feel like, when they didn’t turn it over, they got the look they wanted.”
The Blugolds, however, got a lot of the shots they wanted, too. And they did a good job of making most of them.
Senior Samantha Davis finished with a game-high 27 points and seven rebounds to help Aquinas (18-2) — ranked fourth in Division 3 for this week’s Bound Wisconsin/Zaleski Sports media poll — to its sixth straight victory against an opponent that has only lost to teams with a combined record of 69-10.
Platteville became just the fifth team to score more than 50 points against Aquinas this season but was also never really a threat after Davis and junior Ava Fernholz scored the Blugolds’ final 10 points of the first half and gave them a 41-31 advantage.
The Hillmen were within seven points on four occasions in the second half, but a Davis putback on a missed free throw started a 13-2 run that stretched the Aquinas lead to 79-59.
Junior Eva Willenbring added 13 points — she scored five during the 13-2 run — and Fernholz finished with 11 points, nine rebounds, eight assists and seven steals. Senior Alaina Elias added 10 points and five assists.
Rianna Dye, a 6-foot-2 junior, scored 15 points and shared scoring honors with junior Avery Richard for Platteville, which never led.
“Richard is a fast, physical, athletic kid, and she was hard to contain,” Donarski said. “”And (Dye) got a bucket or two early in the game because we didn’t rotate and pressure well enough. That also shot (the ball) better than their averages would imply.
“Anytime you can score 80, you are going to be satisfied but anytime we can improve defensively, we’re happy.”
