Hot start for Cougars ends Bearcat year

ACKLEY – Maybe it was the good luck charm AGWSR coach Laurie Gann wore around her neck.

The necklace, supplied by senior forward MaKenna Kuper’s fourth-grade sister Kesley, was all part of a spirited outfit for Gann and the Cougars before the Class 1A Region 1 opening game on Thursday, Feb. 11.

Whatever it was, AGWSR (13-7) couldn’t have asked for a better start in an eventual 60-39 win over North Butler.

“Every year at this time she comes up with an outfit for me to wear,” Gann said, “and to pump up the girls. And, tonight, it was because I’ve told her before she’s my lucky charm, she gave me a shamrock hat, this (the necklace) and socks to wear. I guarantee you on Tuesday night, she’ll have a new outfit for me.”

Part of that hot start was Alyssa Hames, who scored 10 of her game-high 24 points in the first quarter alone, she went on to pour in 20 points by the halftime break.

“We talked about being the underdog and having nothing to lose, but we still came out that first quarter kind of intimidated, didn’t bring our best game right away,” said North Butler coach Carrie Eiklenborg, an Ackley native. “It took us a little bit to get over that and start playing the game, that kind of thing.

“We thought we had a good plan starting out with a box-and-one on Hames, but we had to abandon that plan pretty rapidly and switch strategies. I did like the 2-3 (zone) against them, but I mean, good luck to AGWSR, they are a heck of a team and I’ll be curious to keep watching to see how far they get because they’ve got a lot of potential.”

It was a crushing full-court defense that the Bearcats (3-18, final) have struggled with all season that got the Cougars going.

“That’s the kind of start we’ve been wanting to see out of them all year long and we’ve really talked and Tuesday was a good moment for them to realize that we can’t depend on one player, we’ve got to have five players in the option,” Gann said. “We’ve got to get back to the defense we’d been playing earlier in the year, we feel like we got a little bit of it back tonight.”

Grace Finger added 19 points, 12 of which came in the first half. Senior starter Morgan Bakker, however, went down with an injury and didn’t return in the second half. The Cougars had the game well in hand by that point.

“According to the athletic trainer, he thinks it’s just a slight sprain,” Gann said, “and thinks she will be, if she does the protocol, ice, rest, she’ll be able to play some on Tuesday.”

With AGWSR pulling its starters, North Butler senior Madison Clipperton refused to go out without a final push, scoring 10 of her team-high 17 points in the final eight minutes.

“That’s a great way to put it: she was not giving up,” coach Eiklenborg said of Clipperton. “She was going to do everything she could and we talked about that before the game. You have to end the game knowing you did everything you could to help your team and she definitely did that. She did that with her points and passing and assists and rebounds and steals and everything she always does, so that was nice to see her last game.”

AGWSR next plays Gladbrook-Reinbeck in Ackley on Tuesday, Feb. 16, a team the Cougars have defeated twice already this season.

“That can be a positive and a negative with the fact both of us know each other,” Gann said. “We just played G-R Monday night, only seven days apart. We’ve got to be ready to play and obviously the girls won’t overlook people. We’ve got to be ready to play or else it will be tough, if we can play defense and do the things we did tonight, we have a real good chance.”

AGWSR 60, North Butler 39

North Butler (3-18, final)– Carly Adelmund 1-3 0-0 2, Haley Freesemann 3-6 1-2 8, Meg Thompson 1-7 0-0 2, Madison Clipperton 7-17 0-0 17, Brooke Niemann 0-0 0-0 0, Kenzie Groen 2-3 0-0 6, Lauren Fleshner 0-0 0-0 0, Kaycee Wiebke 0-1 0-0 0, Haylee Niemann 1-3 2-2 4, Sydney Eiklenborg 0-3 0-0 0, Brooklyn Wix 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 15-45 3-4 39.

AGWSR (13-7)– Alyssa Hames 9-14 4-5 24, MaKenna Kuper 4-8 0-0 8, Morgan Bakker 3-5 1-1 7, Grace Finger 7-12 5-6 19, Brynn Smith 0-2 0-0 0, Karis Lippert 0-0 0-0 0, Chaylie Lippert 0-2 2-2 2, Shaylee Hofmeister 0-1 0-0 0, Kienzie Hoodjer 0-2 0-0 0, Ava Olson 0-2 3-6 3, Avery Lafrenz 0-0 0-0 0, Catelynn Koop 1-2 0-0 2, Anastasia Meyer 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 22-46 14-19 60.

N. Butler      7     7     7   18      -   39

AGWSR     24   23     7     6      -   60

Three-point goals– NB 6-18 (Clipperton 3-7, Groen 2-3, Freesemann 1-1, H. Niemann 0-1, Wix 0-1, Thompson 0-4); AGWSR 2-9 (Hames 2-4, C. Lippert 0-1, Smith 0-2, Kuper 0-2). Rebounds– NB 21 (Clipperton 8, Freesemann 3, Thompson 3, H. Niemann 2, Adelmund, Wix); AGWSR 26 (Finger 8, Hames 6, Smith 5, Bakker 2, C. Lippert 2, Kuper, Hofmeister, Hoodjer). Assists– NB 9 (Clipperton 3, H. Niemann 2, Freesemann, Thompson, Adelmund, Wix); AGWSR 15 (Kuper 8, Smith 3, Hames 2, Bakker 2). Steals– NB 7 (Clipperton 5, Freesemann, Eiklenborg); AGWSR 11 (Hames 7, Kuper 2, Smith, K. Lippert). Blocks – NB 2 (Clipperton, B. Niemann); AGWSR 3 (Hoodjer 2, Koop). Total fouls – NB 16, AGWSR 7. Fouled out – None.