NEW GLARUS — The last time the New Glarus Glarner Knights girls basketball team won the conference championship, George W. Bush was the President of the United States and Brett Favre was a Green Bay Packer. Also, the Class of 2022 wasn’t yet in kindergarten. 

“It’s really cool, because it’s the first time in a long while,” junior forward Alex Atwell said after the Knights chased down history with a 50-34 win over Cambridge Feb. 17 on Senior Night, adding that it started for the Knights right away with a starting lineup of seniors. “I think we just came out with a lot more energy than we usually do.” 

She said that energy carried over for the rest of the night. “We always try to keep the energy up, and tonight we put the pressure on them (Cambridge), and they got tired and we just kept going.”

This year there was a three-way tie for the Capitol South title, with Belleville and Cambridge also finishing 7-3 in league play.

The way the Knights rallied this season is a story in itself. After a Jan. 28 loss to Belleville, New Glarus needed to win at minimum three of their final four conference games down the stretch — along with getting some help, too — in order to even have a shot at adding some hardware to the trophy case.

But the Knights did just that, toppling Waterloo, Wisconsin Heights, and Cambridge over the final three weeks of play. The lone blemish was a 6-point loss to Marshall.

“We had team bonding earlier in the week, and I think that’s what really just brought us together,” said senior guard Peyton Yaun. 

Meanwhile, Belleville went from ranked with a cushion in the standings to a near free-fall, losing four of their final six regular season games, including league games to Cambridge (twice) and Marshall. Belleville beat Wisconsin Heights in the finale to guarantee a share of the title.

In the New Glarus win over Cambridge, the Knights turned to their defense early and often. The game plan worked, with Cambridge scoring just nine points over the first 18 minutes of the game. Meanwhile, New Glarus ran a steady offensive attack, not rushing ball movement and waiting for openings in the Bluejays spacing.

“I think overall, our girls played great defense all night,” New Glarus coach Kevin Parman said. “I mean, 9 at halftime — I told them that if they give up 9 again, we’re going to win. I’m just proud of the hustle and the effort out of all of the girls. Now the best part is they know they can play that hard.”

While the 17-9 advantage at halftime was still just a couple of possessions different, the momentum and atmosphere of the crowd made it feel much larger. 

But when Cambridge opened on a 4-0 run over the first two minutes, the lead was suddenly down to just four points. 

“It was similar to what happened down there (at Cambridge), except it was us that was down and needed to scratch back,” Parman said.

That’s when freshman Elle Lancaster buried a 3-pointer just arms-length away from her student section. Less than a minute later she added another bucket in the paint, and then Lindsey Schadewalt found Alex Atwell in transition for another hoop to put New Glarus up by 10. Over the next six minutes the lead swelled to 15, then 17, and finally 19 on a Schadewalt bucket in the paint with 4:59 remaining.

“We got a few to fall there to get up by 10 and then kind of ground it out at the end,” Parman said. “We built on that lead, burned some clock and the girls finished on some really nice plays. Overall we did great.”

The sequence proved to be too much for Cambridge to overcome down the stretch, with the score getting as close as 13 points just once after that. 

“We boxed out a lot better tonight,” Yaun said. “We knew that’s what we needed to do to win this. If we didn’t have our defense that we brought tonight, we wouldn’t have pulled it off. It was a defensive game, and we got the looks we wanted. That’s what won the game.”

Atwell led the Knights with 16 points and nine rebounds. Lancaster had 12 points, and Schadewalt had a quiet nine points with eight boards. New Glarus hit just three 3s in the game — all in the second half. The Knights were 17 of 45 from the field, 3 of 9 from deep and 13 of 16 from the line. 

“It was a low-scoring game, so we just tried to keep all the energy up,” Atwell said.

Cambridge struggled getting the ball off on offense and hit just 13 of 43 shot attempts, including a regrettable 6 of 17 showing from the charity stripe.

Now comes the second season — the postseason. New Glarus is slated to host Wis. Heights in Round 1, with a road game next up — at Cambridge.

“We’ll see them again, I hope,” Parman said. “It was great for the girls to get this monkey off their back. Now we have to get right back to work, because the new season starts tomorrow.”

“I just want to do as much as I can and go as far as I can, because this is the last one — this is all I get,” Yaun said.