Published - Saturday, January 03, 2009

January 2: West Salem - Luther girls set for Tuesday

By CRAIG OTTO/craig.otto@lee.net

A popular cliché’ in recent years is that basketball has become a guard’s game. That theory will be put to the test when the two pre-eminent girls’ basketball teams in the Coulee Conference, West Salem and Luther, meet for the first time at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Association Center.

While the Panthers have gotten break-out play from sophomore point guard Meagan Koepnick, West Salem’s play to a fair degree on both ends of the floor still revolves around center Mary Kurisch. And while the Knights feature a front line that includes six seniors 5-foot-9 or taller, the truest center in that group is senior Toni Walters.

“Size is sometimes overrated, but dominant size helps,” West Salem coach Mike Malott said. “Like anybody, we’ll try to emphasize our strengths and expose their weaknesses.” Walters didn’t draw the full-time defensive assignment on Kurisch a year ago. That fell to Sam Peterson, who’s now playing at UW-Eau Claire.

“You have to front her and not leave her open,” Walters said of defending Kurisch. “You have to deny her the ball, and ball pressure from your point guard makes that a lot easier.”

Luther coach Joel Babinec also is concerned about the Panthers group of good shooters, a group that includes Koepnick, Kirstie Langrehr, Brittany Ungerer and Alyssa Scovell. West Salem entered this week’s Christmas tournament at UW-Stout (after New Year’s week deadline) averaging 55 and allowing an average of 32 points per game in winning each of its first five games.

“You have to respect their shooting,” Babinec said. “If you overplay that, they’ll go inside, so you have to be quick enough to cover both.”

In addition to Peterson, the Knights lost Erica Babinec, Kaitlin Kish, Megan Hamilton and Jess Schomberg to graduation. Both teams are relatively young at point guard, with Luther also handing its ball handling reins to sophomore Leslie Klinski.

“We’ve been O.K. handling pressure so far,” Malott said. “Luther won’t bring quite the same kind of pressure they brought last year, and that came with a lot of our kids seeing their pressure for the first time.

“They were very deep on the perimeter last year. Losing a girl like Erica Babinec is a huge loss. And the more you play it the better you get against it, but we also haven’t played anybody yet where we’ve seen that kind of pressure, either.”

Joel Babinec said that applies to the Panthers, as well. While both teams are averaging in the mid-50s in terms of points scored both overall and against common opponents Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau and Black River Falls, West Salem has allowed between 10 and 12 fewer points per game both overall and against common opponents.

“We’ll have to do our best job all year containing their ball presence,” Babinec said. “We haven’t done well enough with that so far. We have to do better with that against them, but we also have to do better with that against every team we play.”

Despite the loss of several veterans, Walters said she’s happy with Luther’s 5-1 record entering Tuesday’s finale of the Winona State Christmas tournament (after deadline). Babinec is playing at Martin Luther College, where Walters will play both volleyball and basketball next year.

“We’ve had some difficult times, but for all the starters we had leaving, it’s gone pretty well,” Walters said. “The new players have filled their roles well.

“We want to keep the conference title. We need to keep playing well defensively. We’re already working well together offensively.”

Luther vs. Mabel-Canton at WSU, Saturday

“Our plan wasn’t to push the ball with the long break (previous game Dec. 11 at Viroqua) and only one practice in quite a while, unless it was obvious,” Joel Babinec said. “We wanted to conserve energy for defense. But when they’re pressuring the first pass as much as they were, you almost have to attack.”

SATURDAY

LUTHER 73, MABEL-CANTON 41

LUTHER

Courtney Hoeg 3 1-2 8, Leisha Brueggeman 1 0-0 2, Toni Walters 3 3-4 9, Bethany Albrecht 2 2-2 6, Leslie Klinski 2 1-2 5, Jessie Kish 5 2-2 13, Jessi Smith 4 1-2 9, Krista Hoeg 2 2-4 6, Jessica Albrecht 3 0-3 6, Chelsea Emmons 1 2-2 5, Katie Woolley 2 0-0 4. Totals 28 14-23 73.

MABEL-CANTON (2-5)

Melissa Hirsch 3 4-5 10, Katelyn Horihan 3 2-3 8, Danielle Allar 3 0-1 6, Lindsay Anderson 2 0-0 5, Cassidy Whalen 2 0-0 4, Mackenzie Geving 2 0-1 4, Riley Hanson 0 2-2 2, Jenessa Richardson 1 0-0 2. Totals 16 8-12 41.

3-point goals — Luther 3 (Kish, C. Hoeg, Emmons), Mabel-Canton 1 (Anderson). Total Fouls — Luther 17, Mabel-Canton 16. Fouled out — Horihan.