NEW GLARUS — Shooting percentage was the basketball term of the day when the Belmont (14-3) girls basketball squad traveled to face off against New Glarus (16-0) on Saturday, Jan. 21 in a matchup that was quickly out of hand.
The Braves tallied the first points of the game off a pair of free throws by sophomore Morgan Freeman, but the Knights raced from there, with junior Lindsey Schadewalt scoring eight of the squad’s ten opening points before Belmont’s head coach Kaleen McGettigan was forced to use a timeout at 14:38 to try and slow things down.
As well-intentioned as that plan was, it didn’t result in the intended effect. New Glarus continued its offensive push, only allowing two more points on free throws by Morgan, as the Knights extended their lead to 19-4 by the 12-minute mark.
The Braves didn’t see their first field goal made until 11:15 — a hotly-contested two-point jumper from senior Mia Hodgson, which was also her only field goal made in the entire game.
Belmont didn’t sink another field goal until nearly five minutes later where junior Lainey Riechers landed a close two-pointer off an inbounds pass.
Between the Braves’ first and second field goals, New Glarus stretched its lead to 32-11 with a balanced scoring attack from Schadewalt, senior Grace Nommensen and senior Alex Atwell.
Belmont pushed with scores from Lainey Riechers, sophomore Courtney Fritz and senior Rylee Rogers; however, the Knights’ offensive dominance saw them extend their lead further, from 37-14 only minutes prior to 46-19 as the teams went into the break.
“New Glarus is an excellent team with a lot of talent and we knew that going in,” said Belmont head coach Kaleen McGettigan. “Maybe we knew it a little too much. Being down 3 kids against an opponent like New Glarus, we were already mentally beat. I just felt like we didn’t play as hard as we could in the first half.”
While the hope was the Braves would spark on offense, reality was a bit different, albeit not for a lack of trying.
Throughout the matchup, New Glaurs saw 45 attempts from the floor, while Belmont had 53. The problem, then, rested in the fact that the Braves only sank 11 shots all night while the Knights made nearly triple that amount with 29.
This was an odd game for Belmont as they saw Rogers and junior Bailey Mester miss all their field goal attempts, while Freeman and Hogdson saw only one of their eight attempts from the floor drop.
As the game passed the seven-minute mark in the second half, and New Glarus was running with a 66-32 lead, the Braves were concerned with slowing the bleeding the Knights were causing.
To that end, the final 6:52 saw Belmont only give up a couple field goals, including one off a jumper from sophomore Elle Lancaster following an inbounds pass.
Braves senior Kennedy Howell answered less than 30 seconds later with a shot from beyond the arc to see their deficit shrink ever so slightly to 68-35.
By this point, the damage had long been done. If New Glarus only played defense in the second half, they’d still have won by two points. The Knights walked away with the victory, preserving their perfect season thus far, 73-44.
“After a conversation at halftime, we came out and played much harder and played much better team defense,” said McGettigan. “I was really pleased with how we responded. We played the second half pretty much even and finished the game with a 29-point loss. New Glarus is an excellent team, and I have no doubt they could end up in Green Bay when this season is all said and done.”
Schadewalt finished with 24 points and 10 rebounds for a double-double. She shot 50% from beyond the arc and went 5-for-6 at the free-throw line. Atwell trailed with 13 points and seven rebounds. Nommensen was the third Knight in double figures with 11 points.
NEW GLARUS 75, MARSHALL 37
MARSHALL — The Knights (16-0, 4-0) took a half game lead on Cambridge (9-5, 3-0) in the Capitol South standings with a win over the Cardinals (9-8, 3-2) on Thursday, Jan. 19.
Schadewalt — who leads the conference with 23.1 ppg — scored 27 points, going 3-for-4 from beyond the arc. She was a perfect 6-for-6 at the charity stripe with nine rebounds. Lancaster also drained three 3-pointers in her 15-point total. Nommensen was the third player in double figures with 16 points.
New Glarus missed just two free throws all night, going 12-for-14 at the free-throw line for 85%. From 3-point range, the Knights were 7-for-12 for 58%. The remaining three came from Hailey Thompson (seven points).
