Poor shooting hurts Eagles

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- For the second consecutive game, the New Ulm Eagle girls basketball team forced 24 turnovers. But for the second straight game, poor shooting cost the Eagles a win.

New Ulm made just 12-of-52 shots from the field and compiled that with poor free throw shooting as the fell to Glencoe-Silver Lake 60-48 Saturday night in non-conference basketball.

Hali Haukos led the Panthers with a game-high 20 points, 15 of them coming in the second half.

Coresa Leighty led the Eagles (0-3) with 13 points.

"Again, we had a lot of shots that did not go down," Eagle coach Brad Metter said. "And we had opportunities at the free throw line that really hurt us tonight.'

New Ulm converted just 18-of-34 free throws and only made 6-of-16 charity tosses in the second quarter.

"At the end of the game, we had a couple of kids take the ball hard to the basket, get fouled, but not convert the free throws," Metter said. Meanwhile, the Panthers salted the game away from the charity stripe, scoring their final nine points from there.

Despite a 2-for-15 shooting performance in the first quarter, the Eagles tied the game at 11-11 on two free throws from Leighty, a Melissa Kuebler bucket and two free throws courtesy of Martha Beatty.

The Eagles then assumed a 16-13 lead on a free throw from Melissa Kuebler and stretched that to a 21-15 lead on a Heather Kuebler trey and a Beatty basket of off the fourth Panther turnover of the quarter.

It became a 25-18 New Ulm lead on Alix Bergman's free throw and a Bergman basket on the eighth turnover by GSL.

But it was a quarter where the Eagles were their own worst enemy, hitting only 6-of-16 free throws.

"That was the difference in the game," Metter said. "These kids are good free throw shooters in practice but we need to prove ourselves in a game. They shoot 75-80 percent from the free throw line."

GSL cut the lead to 26-25 at halftime with Metter not happy with the team's overall play in the first 16 minutes.

"We had mental errors. We had girls missing assignments and not communicating," he said. "At different times, we did not know who was guarding who and gave up six points just on mental errors."

GSL opened a 30-26 lead early in the third quarter as Haukos took over the game for the Panthers. Leighty's basket sliced the GSL lead to 40-35 before Haukos sandwiched two baskets between a 3-ball for a 47-35 GSL lead going into the final quarter.

"She (Haukos) came alive for them in that quarter," Metter said. "That made us go to a man-to-man defense and eventually to a box-and-one on her. Megan Oberle did a nice job shutting her down before fouling out (in the fourth quarter)"

The Eagles made their final run at the Panthers in the fourth quarter cutting a 49-35 lead to a slim 51-46 lead on two free throws from Melissa Kuebler with 3:47 left in the game. But Oberle fouled out and Haukos and the Panthers used free throws the rest of the way.

"The shot opportunities are there for us." Metter said. "We need to work on getting better second opportunities instead of getting trigger-happy. Shooting might be more of a mental thing right now. The girls have worked hard at getting better shooting. It is just a matter of doing it in a game."

The New Ulm "B" squad won 40-9. Lauren Smith led New Ulm with 12 points. The "C" squad also won 51-28. Courtney Steinhauser recorded a triple-double for the Eagles with 20 points, 14 rebounds and 12 steals.

Jim Bastian can be reached at sports@nujournal.com.

GSL 11 14 22 13 -- 60

NEW ULM 11 15 9 13 -- 48

GSL (60) Haukos 20, Olson 9, Streu 8, Bartels 6, Eiden 4, Kinzler 4, Pierson 4, Mickolchek 3, Monk 4.

NEW ULM (48): Leighty 13, Beatty 8, Bergman 7, Oberle 7, H. Kuebler 7, M. Kuebler 5, Waibel 1.