ALBANY — Black Hawk celebrated its 72-41 win over Albany in a big way Feb. 13. The Warriors not only clinched their 44th-straight victory and fourth-straight Six Rivers East title, but star senior Natalie Leuzinger passed 2019 graduate Conner Meyer as the school’s all-time leader in scoring.
Leuzinger finished with 15 points on 5 of 10 shooting and hauled in 10 rebounds. A preferred walk-on for the Wisconsin Badgers, Leuzinger has currently scored 1,668 points in her four years at Black Hawk. She’s averaged 17.4 points per game throughout her career and has hit 166 3-pointers.
“It’s a longevity thing and a consistency thing with (Natalie),” Black Hawk coach Mike Flanagan said. “She shows up every night and does a lot of good things for us. Tonight, especially, she was really good on the glass. She created some opportunities for herself. She’s proof of what hard work does for a player. If you’re able to buy into doing the little things, good things will happen for you. She’s created a lot of opportunities for herself by being fundamentally sound.”
It feels amazing. I never thought I would actually do it. It really is a dream come true. It shows that my hard work has paid off. Now that it’s over with, I can start worrying about the rest of the season. Obviously, I hope to go as far as we did last season, but we got to take it one game at a time.Natalie Leuzinger, Black Hawk senior
Leuzinger had hit a pair of free throws with 10:04 to play in the second half to get to within a point of Meyer’s mark, then converted a transition layup following a steal just 16 seconds later. Meyer had previously broken the record a year earlier in the same gym.
“It feels amazing. I never thought I would actually do it. It really is a dream come true. It shows that my hard work has paid off,” Leuzinger said. “Now that it’s over with, I can start worrying about the rest of the season. Obviously, I hope to go as far as we did last season, but we got to take it one game at a time.”
Hannah Butler led Black Hawk in scoring with 24 points, while younger sister Bailey Butler added 22 points, six rebounds and seven steals. Bailey also finished the night 4 for 9 from beyond the arc.
Black Hawk jumped out to an 18-1 lead, but Albany got back to within 11 at 23-12 on consecutive baskets by Emileigh Dallman, Brianna Dahl and Kristin O’Bel. By halftime, the Warriors led 31-14.
“We did a good job with their press and they didn’t shoot it the best,” Albany coach Derik Doescher said.
Albany fared fairly well against the Warriors’ intense defensive pressure. The halftime deficit was much better than the 39-point deficit they faced against Black Hawk in their first meeting of the year Jan. 7.
“We talked before the game that Albany would be ready to battle. It’s the expectation that when we step on the floor, teams are going to come after us. They came out and played extremely hard with a lot of intensity,” Flanagan said.
Brianna Dahl led the Comets with 14 points, while Kaiya Zurfluh added 10.
Albany has just two games left in the regular season — a home game Feb. 18 against Argyle for a shot at a second-place finish in the conference, and then a game at Pecatonica Feb. 21. The Comets then host Monticello to open the WIAA Division 5 playoffs.
Black Hawk has four games in the final week of the regular season. The Warriors were scheduled to face Darlington Feb. 17 with a game at Juda the following night. A home game against Monticello is set for Feb. 21 with a road game at Cambridge the following afternoon. Black Hawk opens tournament play by hosting winless Benton Feb. 25.
— Thomas Gunnell contributed to this story
