ARGYLE — The Comets coasted after gaining a 23-point lead on Argyle, and the shorthanded Orioles nearly made them pay for it.
“At the end of the day it’s a great win. Because anytime you face Grace Ganshert and Maggie Godfrey on the other side, that’s a tough matchup – two very good athletes,” Albany coach Derik Doescher said after his team’s 53-43 win Jan. 18 in a Six Rivers East battle. “It’s just nice in this conference to get a win on the road – they are not easy by any means.”
Argyle is playing without star forward Tori Lantz, who is out for the remainder of the season with a leg injury. That means versatile guard Grace Ganshert has moved into a role of posting up. That, and the Orioles had just two reserve players off the bench available.
“I honestly can’t fault our effort – we have seven girls,” said first-year Argyle coach Jen Wellnitz. “We ran up and down the court all night last night (against Benton) on the press, and then tonight we got pressed the whole night. So to have seven of us to do that, I’m really happy. I can’t be mad. We’re trying, and (Albany’s) a very talented team.”
After four minutes of play in the first half, the two teams were knotted at 6-6. Albany’s full-court press then caused a ruckus, forcing six turnovers in a four-minute stretch, which led to the Comets to string off a 12-2 run to grab the momentum.
Albany led by as much as 13, but Argyle showed some life in the closing minutes of the half, finishing on a 5-0 run to make it 28-20 at the break.
“Our goal was to get up and down and make them use their legs the full court. I felt that early on we did that, and in fact, the whole game. I felt like in the first half we settled too much from the perimeter, which is fine if you’re making them, but when you’re not knocking down shots you have to attack the middle of the zone,” Doescher said.
Needing to stifle thoughts of an upset, the Comets opened the second half on a 21-6 run, making it 49-26 with 10:38 left in the game.
That’s when the Orioles faced a choice – accept the loss and pack it in, or double down on aggression in hopes of pulling off a miracle rally. They went for the comeback bid. In the end, the 17-4 run to close out the game wasn’t enough for Argyle, but as a senior-laden team, the late show of force could be enough to build momentum over the final month of the regular season.
“We’re out here just trying to have some fun and win as many games as we can. It killed us having Tori Lantz go down, because it made us change everything we thought we were going to do. We went from being a pretty tall team to being pretty short very quick,” Wellnitz said. Just one player on Argyle’s varsity roster is a junior – all the others are seniors, meaning this is their last rodeo together.
“In the second half we pushed it up to over 20, but in the last six minutes or so, we had to get back to our style, because what we were doing wasn’t working in our favor,” Doescher said.
Albany played without forward Gracie Freitag, which also changed the way they went about the game.
“That was a last-minute thing this morning, but Godfrey does such a good job in the middle of that zone that it did negate where we were hoping to get post touches around the rim. Now your post touches have to come off the dribble drive where you get to the block and have to make something happen,” Doescher said.
Doescher has been pleased with how his junior post player has performed in recent weeks.
“She’s a 6-footer that has been playing really well as of late, so she’s hard to replace,” Doescher said.
Albany’s all-time scoring leader, senior Brianna Dahl, scored 20 points and added six steals to lead the Comets. Sophomore Alana Durtschi had 12 points and 16 rebounds. Kaiya Zurfluh added eight points. The Comets out-rebounded Argyle 37-28.
“I thought Alana Durtschi kept a lot of balls alive tonight. She’s just fundamentally sound for being 5-8, 5-9. She’s got a nose for the basketball. She reads the ball well off the rim, gets her hand on things and just goes aggressively to get it.”
Albany (11-4, 5-1 Six Rivers East) hosts Potosi-Cassville Jan. 22 in a nonconference game, then welcome Black Hawk, unbeaten in conference play, on Jan. 25.
Ganshert paced the Orioles with 14 points and 10 rebounds, while Maggie Godfrey had 13, six steals and five blocks. Jenna Allison added seven points.
“Compared to last night, we were a completely different team, and I told them that in the locker room,” Wellnitz said. “And Grace, she has the weight of the world on her shoulders right now and she’s still producing.”
Argyle (6-8, 3-2) lost to Benton 54-51 the night before the Albany game in a nonconference affair. Ganshert and Godfrey each scored 17 points. Up next for the Orioles was a Jan. 20 date with Black Hawk, then home games against Shullsburg and Barneveld on back-to-back days Jan. 24-25.
