West Fork rolling since last facing North Butler

GREENE – The last time West Fork faced North Butler in girls’ basketball action, the two teams seemed to be heading in opposite directions.

The Warhawks were amid a four-game losing streak and were 3-7 overall, 3-4 in the Top of Iowa Conference after the Bearcats defeated them at home. Meanwhile, North Butler was riding high while winning five of six.

It was a whole different team look for West Fork on Tuesday, Feb. 4 as the Warhawks turned up the pressure and turned in a 56-40 win over the Bearcats on the road.

“The pressure helped us get going, I thought,” West Fork coach Rodney Huber said. “That, early on, was big. It got us some easy points, off turnovers. It’s a testament to how far our younger players have come. At the beginning of the year, we were only playing one or two off the bench consistently and now we can go four or five deep and feel comfortable and that’s a good deal when we want to pressure and do what we want to do.”

North Butler coach Carrie Eiklenborg agreed wholeheartedly that the pressure was the difference from the last time the two met.

“They picked up the intensity on their press that was obviously giving us fits tonight,” coach Eiklenborg said. “We even put in a brand-new press break and it worked a few times, but they were all over the place and we weren’t getting open like we should or not making good passes, that kind of things. To me, that was the difference in the game is how we handled or how we didn’t handle the press.”

North Butler, too, got into a bit of foul trouble trying to defend Caspers, who went off for 20 points, 12 in the first half while hitting 8-of-12 from the free throw line. She had a resounding double-double with 16 rebounds to go with her scoring output.

“I’m not sure about how Emily did (at the free throw line), but she’s such a mismatch down there when she gets the ball and we were making timely shots from the high post, not just Emily,” Huber said. “We make a move and it opens her up and she can’t be guarded very well.”

Sydney Eklenborg fouled out and both Kristin Dralle and Madison Clipperton finished with four fouls for North Butler.

“That really handicapped us right away is getting both of our big girls into foul trouble and then you don’t have...it’s hard to defend a big girl when you don’t have big girls,” coach Eiklenborg said. “And when they are playing careful, it’s really hard on them. We should be getting used to that because it happens all the time.”

And it wasn’t just Caspers, Madisyn Bonner made a couple of big post moves that resulted in baskets as she added eight points to the West Fork cause. Keelee Sheriff, too, made a layup and was fouled, hitting both free throws, that had North Butler on its heels.

Another difference from the past meeting was North Butler came out shooting well as the Warhawks did not. This night, it was a little reversed with coach Huber’s squad hitting 20-of-60 from the field for 33 percent.

“They were hot last time shooting the ball and Clipperton shot the ball the first couple minutes here in the first half, kind of shot that way the entire game last time,” Huber said. “I thought Mak (Fessler) did a good job of adjusting to her and did a better job as a team of helping her out, too. Made her take tougher shots and that was the difference.”

Clipperton had 12 points at halftime, but didn’t score again. She was 0-for-6 from the field in the second half. The Bearcats fell to 6-11 overall, 5-9 in the Top of Iowa East Conference.

“Other than the fouls, I think we played a good game defensively,” coach Eiklenborg said. “I think we did the things we talked about in practice. We had a pretty hard double-team on Caspers, which you have to, she scores a lot of points. I’m happy with the way we played defensively, most of the time our rebounding was pretty good, but again, she’s a hard one, but they have a couple of girls bigger than us on the court, so you have to box out every time. Next couple days we’ll work on handling the ball and ball pressure and all the good stuff and get ready for the last couple of games.”

West Fork improved to 9-10 overall, 9-5 in the TIC East, good for fourth.

And Huber seems a lot less stressed.

“They have been a fun group to coach,” Huber said.

West Fork 56, North Butler 40

West Fork (9-10, 9-5)– Makenzie Fessler 3-11 1-2 7, Sydney Nuehring 0-0 0-0 0, Maddie Hubka 3-7 1-3 7, Rylie Akins 0-6 0-0 0, Ellie Weaver 3-5 0-0 6, Madisyn Bonner 3-9 2-4 8, Jen Ingham 0-0 0-0 0, Sadie Latham 0-1 0-0 0, Keelee Sheriff 1-3 2-2 4, Emma Martinek 1-7 2-2 4, Emily Caspers 6-11 8-12 20. Totals 20-60 16-24 56.

North Butler (6-11, 5-9) –Haley Freesemann 2-5 2-2 6, Meg Thompson 2-5 2-2 6, Mady Klingenborg 5-17 0-1 12, Haylee Niemann 0-3 1-2 1, Sydney Eiklenborg 2-4 1-2 5, Brooklyn Wix 0-0 0-0 0, Kristin Dralle 1-4 0-0 2. Totals 15-48 7-10 40.

W. Fork      15   16   13   12      -   56

N. Butler      9   19     9     3      -   40

Three-point goals – WF 0-11 (Martinek 0-1, Hubka 0-2, Fessler 0-3, Akins 0-5); NB 3-12 (Clipperton 2-7, Klingenborg 1-4, Freesemann 0-1). Rebounds– WF 38, 14 off., 24 def. (Caspers 16, Hubka 6, Bonner 4, Martinek 4, Weaver 3, Latham 3, Fessler, Nuehring); NB 35, 10 off., 25 def. (Clipperton 9, Dralle 7, Eiklenborg 5, Team 5, Klingenborg 3, Thompson 2, Freesemann). Assists– WF 16 (Akins 4, Weaver 4, Fessler 3, Hubka 2, Martinek, Caspers); NB 6 (Freesemann 2, Clipperton 2, Niemann, Eiklenborg). Steals– WF 16 (Weaver 6, Hubka 4, Caspers 3, Fessler 2, Bonner); NB 4 (Freesemann, Klingenborg, Eiklenborg, Dralle). Blocks– WF, None; NB 4 (Eiklenborg 2, Dralle 2). Total fouls– WF 13, NB 19. Fouled out – WF, None; NB (Eiklenborg).