NEW GLARUS — Black Hawk opened the 2020-21 season just as it has for each of the last 18 years — with a win. This time, the Warriors’ victim was New Glarus, 80-40 on Dec. 3. The last time Black Hawk’s girls basketball team lost a season opener was in 2002 against Dodgeville.
“I have not been as nervous about a first game for a long time,” Black Hawk coach Mike Flanagan said. “You have no summer to kind of gel; you’ve got no opportunities to kind of see how kids fit together; you’re coming in against a team that’s 2-0 and has scored quite a few points and has some really good athletes. I just really didn’t know.”
Four Warriors reached double figures in the game. Bailey Butler was a steal shy of a triple-double, finishing the night with 30 point on 13 of 24 shooting with 10 assists, 9 steals and 6 rebounds. Kaylee Marty had 17 points and 5 boards, while Raylin Peterson and Makayla Mau each had 12 points.
“Bailey is such a handful, plus she’s a good passer. She’s so unselfish, and that makes her even tougher to guard,” New Glarus coach Kevin Parman said.
The two teams were knotted up at 6 four minutes into the game, but Butler hit a 3-pointer to kickstart a 32-11 run to close out the first half. In the second half, the Warriors outscored the Knights 42-23.
Black Hawk was 35 of 62 from the field, including a cool 8 of 19 from 3-point land. On paper, the efficiency appears pretty run-of-the-mill for the Warriors, but Flanagan said there were flaws up and down the court all night.
“I think we played like a first game. There are a lot of aspects of the game that we’ve got to get better at and I credit New Glarus — they played really hard the whole time. Coach Parman’s going to get this program moving in a really good direction,” Flanagan said.
Less efficient yet were the Glarner Knights.
“I thought we ran OK. We obviously didn’t finish as much on the offensive end as we’d like to,” Parman said. ““The difference was they (Black Hawk) executed. They ran what they needed to run. We stood around and watched them execute at times, and that’s the difference. Coach Flanagan is a great guy and a great coach and I have all the respect for him. His girls did what they needed to do to get the W.”
Senior Jaylynn Benson led New Glarus with just 7 points, nearly 11 points lower than her average last season when she was a first-team all-conference guard in the Capitol South.
New Glarus hit just two 3-pointers and 12 baskets in all. In a positive, the Knights were 14 of 18 at the free throw line.
“We’re just fortunate that some of our miscues on defense didn’t afford them a few more makes,” said Flanagan, who played with just eight players and had multiple players in foul trouble since the early minutes of the game.
The schedule doesn’t get immediately easier for New Glarus either, with conference champion Marshall coming to town Dec. 8. The Cardinals feature two NCAA DI talents in Laura Nickel and Anna Lutz. Throw in Butler, who will play at UW-Green Bay next year, and the Knights are playing three college talents in two games. Talk about a tough stretch.
“I’m challenging the girls to see how they respond from Black Hawk and show everybody how we’re going to react, and how we’ve gotten better,” Parman said. “The girls have been working hard and I’m happy with how we’ve played overall (this season). But now we know what we need to do: We’ve got to execute and be more focused on both ends of the court.”
Black Hawk, meanwhile, blew out Monticello the following night, Dec. 4, and was scheduled to play fellow WIAA state qualifier from last year, Platteville on Dec. 7.
In the 69-28 win over Monticello, Butler had 31 points, 8 rebounds, 8 assists and 5 steals. Marty again had 17 points, while Tara Wellnitz finished with 6 points and 11 rebounds. The Warriors connected on just 6 of 21 attempts from deep.
Black Hawk led 44-19 at halftime.
