Local girls basketball -- three programs at different stages

Eagles learning what it feels like to win; Greyhounds working on

winning more; Chargers just win

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- When the New Ulm High School girl's basketball team defeated Blue Earth 66-52 and then Sibley East 46-45 this past week, it marked something that has not happened much recently for the Eagles -- a two game winning streak.

"I think that the key to those two games was that the first win -- over Blue Earth -- was probably one against a team that was the weakest that we have seen to this point," said coach Brad Metter. "Our girls had some success early in that game -- made some shots, had some steals and you could see the kids confidence come out.

"That is something that we have talked about this season -- coming out on the floor, expecting to win and getting that winning attitude. Some of our girls were talking about how everybody that we play come out on the floor and are confident in that they are going to win -- we are pretty quiet. And we talked about that after a game. Then we turned around in the Blue Earth game and you could see that our girls had talked about that confidence and when they had success, it just snowballed from there."

Metter said that that confidence continued against Sibley East in a close, one-point win.

"Baskets seem to find a way to go in when you are confident," he said.

"And our girls have had a pretty good mindset this season -- we talk about how wins can help that mindset and the winning attitude," said Metter. "But it is the old argument -- which came first, the chicken or the egg? Do you play like a winner before you are one or do you have to win before you know what winning is like?"

Metter said that from his standpoint as a coach "you have to play and know that you are going to win before you can be a winner -- you cannot expect it to happen. You need to go out and expect to win. I am always talking to the girls -- if any of you think that when we go to a school and are not expecting to win, then let's not even show up. Let's just phone it in -- why go? You have to believe that each game, you have to go out expecting to win and, for the most part, the girls have and buy into that."

Metter saw his team's two game winning streak end Tuesday with a loss to LCWM Tuesday night "and the girls knew in the locker room that they let one get away from them."

FLOR PLAYS WELL FOR EAGLES: Metter said that senior Angie Flor -- one of only two seniors on the varsity along with Briana Batzlaff -- "has done a nice job in our two wins. (Sophomores) Kelly Hammerschmidt and Megan Oberle both have done well with Oberle coming off of the bench.She hustles all of the time- she does not have a lot of the (offensive) numbers but she plays solid defense rebounding and attacking the basket."

ST. PETER WILL BE TEST: The measure of how far a team has come is determined a lot from how they perform between their first and second meetings. Friday night, Metter and his Eagles will see how much progress they have made when they tangle with St.Peter. In their first meeting, the Saints won 69-33.

"This game will be a measuring stick for us -- they are a good team and we may be outmatched," said Metter. "Our goal is to play better than we did in our first meeting. Our goal is not to go in and get blown out -- they will not do to us what they did to us in our first meeting. We go over there and show them how much better we are. The kids know that -- if we come out of St. Peter with a win or an improved performance, it shows us what we can do."

PROGRAM NEEDS SMALL STEPS FIRST: Metter believes that the Eagle girl's basketball program "is taking small steps forward" in achieving success."

"Our seventh and eighth grade programs have better numbers than we have in the past -- and we have kids out that did not play basketball before. We have a solid corp of freshmen and sophomores. I attribute that to (New Ulm Basketball Association) NUBA and our coaches and parents. Our freshmen coach (Jake Briney) and (seventh and eighth grade coaches) Becky Mathiowetz and Beth Bartolis have done great jobs at that level."

HOUNDS INEXPERIENCE HURTS: Cathedral girl's basketball coach Mary Dengerud said that her team's inexperience (only two seniors on varsity) has hurt them in recent games.

"We did not shoot well -- playing against a team's zone- has been a problem," said Dengerud. "Our youth -- knowing what shot to take or what shot not to take -at the time is part of the mistakes that we are making."

One player who has been pretty steady lately has been Liesl Genelin who hit for 18 points Tuesday night. "She is starting to get better -- she was in a slump midway though the year and we worried about that because we need her to score in order to win."

Dengerud feels that the inexperience "has hindered progress this season. Everybody is getting playing time -- we have to play eight or nine players with the type of defense that we play. When we have lapses of not knowing what we are doing or turnovers that hurts us in games."

Dengerud said that her team needs to work on "offensive rebounding. And we need to play four quarters -- we have not put a full game together yet. We always have that bad quarter or bad minutes. We need to get rid of them."

"The Tomahawk Conference is wide-open -- we need to keep improving each game."

CHARGERS DEFENSE KEYS WIN: Anytime that you play good defense, you usually end up winning. Tuesday night, MVL held Springfield to 22 points in a 41-22 win.

'We played a good zone defense and good person-to-person really stopped Springfield," said Charger coach Dave Biedenbender. "(Springfield) Coach Paul Arnoldi said it after the game. And we held them to 19 per cent shooting from the field -- we did not play that well on offense but we did it with our defense."

Biedenbender said that Kelsey Black and Danielle Kramer both played solid games. "And (Danielle Kramer) also handed out five assists, Kelsey had seven rebounds."

"Danielle pretty much controlled the ball -- they pretty much played full-court pressure the whole game."

Biedenbender said that while Jessica Merseth is MVL's big offensive threat, the Chargers have a good surrounding corp to compliment her. "We have two players averaging six points, and players with five point, four points, nine points -- we can get scoring from everyone which will help in tournaments."

'"Every game, we are going nine players deep and sometimes 10 deep."

KAISERHOFF IN WESTERN MINNESOTA: I mistakenly wrote that the New Ulm Kaiserhoff was in the Southwestern Minnesota League this coming baseball season. It should be the Western Minnesota League.