Falcons stun Pirates with late comeback; Gilman gets ECC win
GILMAN GIRLS BASKETBALL
For 26 minutes Monday night, the Gilman Pirates seemed well on their way to earning a second straight win and carrying some needed momentum into tonight’s matchup with Eastern Cloverbelt Conference power Neillsville.
Unfortunately in this case, basketball games are 36 minutes long.
Down 25-10 and struggling mightily on offense, the Flambeau Falcons suddenly found their groove in the last 10 minutes and went on a 31-10 tear to stun Gilman 41-35 in the non-conference matchup between neighboring rivals. The loss dropped Gilman to 1-3 and left them stunned and frustrated, while the Falcons improved to 2-0 with a win that will be helpful in end-of-season seeding.
Gilman head coach Tammy Weir said the Falcons need to be credited for playing hard through the end and not giving up.
“We had 24 turnovers, that’s too many,” Weir said. “We need to cut that in half. Flambeau had 31 rebounds to our 35. We allowed them too many boards. With our height and strength, they took control under the basket.”
As the score indicates, this was a defensive struggle most of the way.
Gilman’s box-in-one, aimed at containing Flambeau senior Kirsten Lawton was very effective in the first half. Lawton hit just one shot from the field and Flambeau scored only five points in the first 18 minutes.
Flambeau’s man-to-man, however, did enough to keep the Falcons in the game as the Pirates missed some golden opportunities at the rim and only led 12-5 at the break with Tatum Weir scoring off three lob assists from teammates and Emma Grunseth scoring off a Madisyn James assist in a closing 8-2 run.
The Pirates’ offensive execution was solid in the first eight minutes of the second half as the lead grew to 15. James assisted Grunseth on an inside hoop, Weir hit a baseline jumper off an inbound play and James scored on a tough drive through the lane for a 19-8 lead. Kya Dietzler added a hoop and harm at the 12:11 mark, though she missed the free throw to keep it a 13-point game. She made one of two free throws 34 seconds later and, after an Ali Hruby putback for Flambeau, James nailed a 3-point shot from the left corner to give Gilman its 25-10 advantage.
Lawton hit one of two free throws with 10:01 to go. That was followed by a Maddie Marten 3-pointer an two free throws by Hruby at the 8:49 mark. Those six points gave Flambeau the spark it needed.
Lawton scored seven points, including a 3-pointer that capped a run that cut Gilman’s lead to 31-25 with 5:35 still remaining. Hruby scored twice to offset hoops by Dietzler and Weir to make it 3529. Weir’s bucket with 4:05 left wound up being Gilman’s last points. Lawton scored twice off steals to cut the lead to two. Marten then hit back-toback clutch right-wing jumpers to give Flambeau a 37-35 lead with 2:02 to go. The Falcons blocked a 3-point attempt by Gilman’s Aubrey Syryczuk and turned that into a big hoop in the paint from Hruby to go up by four. Lawton blocked a shot by James and the Falcons turned that into Lawton’s clinching free throws with 47 seconds left.
Gilman was 13 of 36 from two-point range (36.1%) but there certainly were misses at the rim the Pirates would have loved to have gotten back. The Pirates were just one of 13 behind the 3-point arc and six of 11 from the free throw line.
Flambeau wound up 14 of 43 on twos, two of eight on 3s and seven of 13 from the foul line. Turnovers wound up even at 24 apiece.
“I’m happy with our field goal percentage,” Tammy Weir said. “We shot 36%, but we need to get another six to eight shots off each game. We should have over 40 attempts from the field. Our 3-pointers didn’t want to fall and our free throws are not where they should be. We should have more attempts. We need to attack the basket more and our free throw percentage needs to be up over 75%. We will continue to push our running game and taking care of the ball.”
Tatum Weir had a 14-point, 10-rebound double-double to lead Gilman. She added four steals and two assists. James had eight points and six points.
“Madisyn did a great job of finding the open player,” Tammy Weir said.
Dietzler had six points and five rebounds. Grunseth had five points and eight rebounds. Ava Warner had a bucket, two rebounds and an assist. Hannah Vick had four rebounds and an assist. Syryczuk had six rebounds and three steals.
Lawton’s 14 second-half points pushed her to a game-high of 16, while Hruby’s 14 points were huge for the Falcons.
“Aubrey and Ava’s defense shut down Lawton in the first half, but she worked hard and got open in the second half,” Weir said. “I think we ran out of steam.”
After tonight’s matchup with Neillsville, the Pirates host Colby on Tuesday and go to Granton on Dec. 10 for league play.
Gilman 43, Loyal 29
On Friday, Gilman improved to 1-1 in Eastern Cloverbelt play with a solid 4329 victory over the visiting Loyal Greyhounds.
The Pirates’ 2-3 zone limited Loyal to nine first-half points, and they were able to get Weir established inside early and often while building a 23-9 halftime lead.
“Loyal played some tough defense on us,” Tammy Weir said. “We had too many turnovers again (25). Most of them were in the last few minutes when the pressure was on. So, we still need to work better on taking care of the ball. But, we got a W before the holiday, so this is great.”
Tatum Weir finished with 23 points, 10 rebounds and six blocked shots. She even stepped outside the arc and knocked down both of her 3-point attempts. Eight of her rebounds came offensively.
Grunseth had a big night as well with a 14-point, 13-rebound double-double. She had 10 of those boards on the defensive end, helping limit Loyal to six offensive rebounds. Grunseth had four steals and three assists.
Syryczuk had five points, three rebounds and three steals. James had a point, five steals and an assist. Dietzler had eight defensive rebounds.
Alyssia Zvolena led Loyal with nine points, all of which came in the second half. Abrial Kubista added seven. The Greyhounds made just nine of 41 twopoint shots and two of nine 3s. They turned the ball over 19 times.
