Heidmann answered with a trey ….

Heidmann answered with a trey to give Stratford a five-point lead at 20-23, and then Edgar’s Davis and Menecke both picked up their fourth fouls.

Hoesly’s basket brought Edgar within two points of the Tigers again at 29-31, but Davis fouled out after committing her fifth foul against Linzmaier with five minutes left in the game. Linzmaier made one of the two free throws but junior guard Allison Lindner’s made basket gave Stratford a 3429 lead.

Later on, Manecke fouled out with two minutes, 24 seconds left after fouling Stratford’s Berg, who drained both free throws to give the Tigers a more comfortable 37-29 advantage. Junior Morgan Schnelle became the third Edgar player to foul out of the game with under one minute remaining. She fouled Berg who made one of two double- bonus free throws. Heidmann was fouled and she sank both free throws with 46 seconds left to seal a 42-32 victory.

Stratford won its third straight game to improve its record to 4-4 overall and 2-3 in the Marawood South Conference. The young Tigers keep improving since starting slow out of the gate this season. Stratford head coach Tammie Christopherson knew it would time some time for her team to find its groove.

“We are a young team who has five new starters, so it took us a while to get our footing and honestly we couldn’t have started out with a tougher schedule than we had,” she said. “I’ve said all along, this is a team that is going to keep getting better and better and things are starting to fall into place for us a bit, and we are learning from our mistakes and starting to find success, and that’s a positive. I just see a super bright future for this team.”

She enjoyed her team’s two straight non-conference wins against Loyal and Spencer, however it’s always a sweeter win against a Marawood Conference South opponent like Edgar.

“We really wanted a Marawood South win and that’s what we talked about going into this game,” Tammie Christopherson said. “We’ve done some damage in the Cloverbelt and now we want to do some damage in the Marawood South, and everybody knows it’s tough every single night in the conference, so any night we get a win is a huge and the kids are super excited and I am very proud of them.”

Edgar, meanwhile, fell to 5-3 overall and 3-3 in the Marawood South. Stratford was scheduled to play at Colby and Edgar versus Mosinee on Tuesday, after The Record-Review’s early deadline to print this week’s newspaper. Results from Tuesday’s games will appear in next week’s newspaper.

The Wildcats played against the Tigers without one of their promising young stars, sophomore forward Mikayla Wirkus, who has an ankle injury. Edgar head coach Tom McCarty is hoping to have Wirkus back after the holiday break. He said it was also tough to have three players foul out against Stratford.

“We are at the end of December and we still haven’t played a game with our full team,” McCarty said. “It has been hard to build some chemistry and figure out a starting rotation because it seems we have a different six or seven players able to play each night, so that’s been difficult.”

He said Edgar needs to improve on generating points in its half court offense when opponents are successful at breaking its full-court press.

“We knew all along our calling card needs to be our defense, but when we are not generating turnovers we need to get better at generating some offense and that’s what we are still learning how to do and that’s why we are struggling,” McCarty said. “When we are able to turn teams over then we are doing alright, but when we are not, then we are still learning how to play our offense in the half court and that’s what we need to work on.”

Edgar plays in the Northland Pines tournament in Eagle River at 5 p.m. against Ashland on Wednesday, Dec. 29. Edgar will then play against either Northland Pines or Little Chute at 1 or 2:45 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 30. Stratford plays in the Shullsburg tournament at 7:45 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 29, against Shullsburg. Stratford will then play against either Bangor or Cochrane- Fountain City at 6 or 7:45 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 30.