Pirates take care of business in Greenwood and Cornell

GILMAN GIRLS BASKETBALL

Two big scoring sprees –– one in each half –– shot the Gilman Pirates past the Greenwood Indians 64-40 Tuesday, the team’s seventh straight victory.

One night after posting a triple-double against Rib Lake, Gilman’s Tatum Weir nearly did it again by scoring 22 points, grabbing 12 rebounds and blocking seven shots. Madisyn James hit five of 10 3-point attempts and added 20 points. Emma Grunseth hit a pair of secondhalf 3s and had a 10-point, 14-rebound double-double and Aubrey Syryczuk caused plenty of trouble for Greenwood at the top of the Pirates’ zone defense with eight points, most of which came off steals. She had five of those, six assists and 10 rebounds in possibly her best outing of the season.

The Pirates got out to an 8-2 lead, but Greenwood fought back and actually surged ahead 15-12 with nine minutes left in the half, led by nine points from senior Mesa Rasmussen. But the Pirates made a subtle defense switch, going from a 3-2 look to a 2-3 and shut Greenwood out for the rest of the half, and then went on a 23-0 tear that extended into the second half.

Grunseth started the run by scoring off a lob pass from Syryczuk and James drilled a 3-ball at the 5:51 mark to put the Pirates in front for good. Syryczuk scored off two steals and Weir added a three-point play to make it 24-15. James ended the half with a 3-pointer and a lob pass to Weir, who put it in to make it 2915 at the break.

Syryczuk scored off another steal, Hannah Vick scored off a Syryczuk assist and Grunseth hit a long two to extend the lead to 35-15 before Greenwood’s Tysen Lindner got a putback to fall, ending the Indians’ scoring drought of just under 12 minutes.

Greenwood put a dent in that lead, getting within 41-29 with about nine minutes to go when the Pirates put it away with another offensive jolt. This time James was the spark, drilling three 3s in less than two minutes. Rebound baskets by Weir and Grunseth got the lead back to 20 at 51-31. After Avry Wuethrich scored for Greenwood, Weir scored off a rebound and Grunseth swished her backto- back 3s from the right wing to open up a 59-31 bulge with four minutes left.

The Pirates shot a season-high 48.1% overall from the field, making 18 of 33 two-point shots and seven of 17 from long range. The Pirates have shot better than 35% for nine straight games and, not surprisingly, have won eight of them.

Gilman was dominant on the glass, outrebounding Greenwood 43-19. The Pirates did turn it over 18 times.

“We had only seven turnovers in the first half, which were good looks but just a half-second too late,” head coach Tammy Weir said. “We had a couple of sloppy moments in the second half.”

Hannah Vick had two points and four rebounds and Kya Dietzler scored the game’s last basket. Ava Warner had two assists and a blocked shot.

The 9-5 Pirates will hit the halfway point of the Eastern Cloverbelt Conference season Friday when they visit Loyal for a 7:15 p.m. tip. Gilman is now 4-3 in league play and looking to make a potential run to second place in the second half. Gilman visits Granton Tuesday before getting its second shot of the season at league-leading Neillsville. The Warriors host Gilman on Jan. 20.

Gilman 58, Cornell 30

The Pirates were never seriously threatened Thursday, yet they weren’t clearly in command either until a 23-0 second-half run finally buried one-win Cornell in a 58-30 non-conference road win.

The Pirates led by as many as 16 in the first half at 24-8, but a string of off-target passes, turnovers and some missed opportunities at the rim allowed Cornell to hang around and pull within 25-15 at the half on a 3-pointer by Teryn Close in the final seconds.

“There was definitely some frustration at half time when we already had 10 turnovers and we were only up by 10,” Tammy Weir said. “Our lead should have been at least 20 points. But, after we talked about control and cleaning it up, we went back out and only had another five turnovers until the last three minutes when our JV went in and finished the game. So, much better.”

A triple from Teaira Spaeth answered an elbow jumper from Grunseth and drew the Chiefs within 29-22. That’s when the Pirates said enough was enough, shored up their defense and pounded Cornell with solid offensive execution.

Tatum Weir, who had not scored up to that point, took two straight feeds from James and put them in. Vick assisted on Weir’s next hoop that made it 35-22. James hit a free throw and then knocked a 3-pointer. Vick got an easy one off a baseline inbound play and Weir scored off a Grunseth assist to push the lead to 43-22 and force a Cornell timeout with 11:25 to go.

But Gilman wasn’t done. Weir scored off a lob pass from Syryczuk and James swished a 3. Weir cut to the hoop and was rewarded with a Grunseth assist. Grunseth scored off a Vick assist to push the lead to 30 at 52-22 with eight minutes still to play.

Dietzler, Vick and Emma Miller added baskets down the stretch.

James continued her recent run of strong play for the Pirates with a gamehigh 19 points. She tied for the team lead with six assists and had four steals and four rebounds. She even blocked a shot. James was four of 10 from 3-point range, including two in the first half that helped the Pirates grab an 18-6 lead.

Weir’s 14 second-half points combined with 12 rebounds gave her another double- double. Weir blocked five shots and had two assists and two steals. Emma Grunseth had eight points, 11 boards, two assists and a blocked shot.

Vick added six points, five rebounds and three assists. Syryczuk dished out six assists, grabbed seven rebounds and had five steals and four blocked shots while contributing three points. Kayleigh James had two points, two blocked shots and two steals.

As a team, Gilman blocked 13 Cornell shots.

Addysson Hopkins hit a short firsthalf jumper and had two steals. Dietzler had two rebounds and an assist to go with her late hoop. Bryn Hendricks had a late assist and Miller and Claire Drier each pulled down a late rebound.

Kelsea Popp led Cornell (1-10) with 12 points.

Gilman had a 45-33 edge in rebounding and forced 26 Chief turnovers. The Pirates hit 22 of 51 two-point shots (43.1%) and four of 16 3-pointers.