WIAA DIV. 5 GIRLS BASKETBALL - Pirates’ sectional upset bid crumbles in last six minutes

WIAA DIV. 5 GIRLS BASKETBALL

The Gilman Pirates got the kind of game they needed if they were going to pull off another WIAA Division 5 girls tournament upset, and they were in great position to do so with six minutes left in last Thursday’s sectional semifinal.

But in a game where the defenses already ruled, second-seeded Owen-Withee’s defense got just a little bit better down the stretch and pulled the Blackhawks through to a 40-30 win in front of a full house at Stanley-Boyd High School.

Owen-Withee outscored the upstart, ninth-seeded Pirates 10-2 in those last six minutes to secure its third win of the season over its Eastern Cloverbelt Conference rival. This one certainly didn’t come easily, but it did send Owen-Withee to the sectional final Saturday in Hudson, where it lost 60-38 to Clear Lake ending its season at 20-8.

The loss ended the Pirates’ three-game tournament winning streak as they finished 12-16.

Playing their second straight game with Nancy Mann serving as acting head coach, Gilman’s game plan was to pack the lane with its 2-3 zone, force the Blackhawks to make shots from the outside and try to limit the turnovers that plagued the Pirates in their first two meetings with Owen-Withee, a 72-40 blowout loss on Dec. 5 and a much closer 39-28 defeat on Feb. 13.

Conversely, Owen-Withee also packed into zone defensively, trying to keep Gilman from getting inside. The dueling zones produced long patient possessions by both teams, especially in the first half. The Blackhawks did occasionally throw their 1-2-2 half-court trap at Gilman but, for the most part, the Pirates handled that well.

“That’s what we were banking on,” Mann said of trying to force Owen-Withee into outside shots. “I even had a little trouble keeping the girls in further. The whole first half I had to get on them to stay inside.”

What neither team was banking on was foul trouble, but it became a story for both. The Blackhawks played chunks of the game without two of their top players, Kendall Weiler and Geneva Capetillo, both of whom eventually fouled out. Gilman’s top threat Danielle Mann picked up two quick fouls near the end of the first half, giving her three at the time. She got her fourth with 11:55 left and sat out for a nearly four-minute stretch, but the Pirates were able to stay at a two-point deficit in that time.

“Danielle is kind of our calming factor and she had four fouls,” Nancy Mann said. “I was like well, I have to put her back in and she’s just going to have to play.”

Mann returned to the game at the eightminute mark with Gilman trailing 28-26. The Pirates actually had a brief 26-25 lead when James hit a 3-pointer at the 10-minute mark. Mann answered Weiler’s inside score with two free throws to make it a 3028 game with 5:59 left. Weiler fouled out in that sequence.

But that’s when the Pirates, who had done well to hang on to the ball for 30 minutes, began to crack with turnovers and some forced shots.

The Blackhawks got a jumper from Ellie Petersen off a kickout pass from Reina Arndt and Capetillo’s steal and score put Owen-Withee up 34-28 with 4:17 left. After a Mann miss with 3:18 left, Capetillo found a back-cutting Arndt for an easy hoop to push the lead to 36-28 with 2:50 to go.

The Pirates got a tough break when Mann’s make off her own offensive rebound was waved off by a mysterious jump ball call with 2:34 left. The Pirates maintained possession off the call, but turned it over. Gilman got a stop, but turned it over again with 2:17 left. From there, the Pirates got nothing to fall from the field and the Blackhawks put the game away with a Capetillo bucket off a steal that made it 39-28 with 52 seconds left.

“We just got a little cold, got a little excited.” Nancy Mann said of the finish.

The Pirates were poised early and took an 8-4 lead midway through the first half following a James 3 and four points from Mann. Claire Drier got a backcourt steal and score and Mann took a defensive rebound the other way, drew a foul and sank the free throws for a 15-11 Gilman lead with 5:46 left in the half.

The Pirates, though, went into a costly cold spell for the rest of the half and were outscored 8-0 to trail 19-15 at the break. Owen-Withee got out to a 23-16 lead four minutes into the second half when the Pirates made a run. Allison Olynick scored on the baseline off a Mann assist and then she rebounded a Mann missed 3 and got fouled. Olynick made one of the two free throws to pull the Pirates within 23-19. Mann’s steal and score and her offensive putback of a James miss tied the game at 23-23 and forced an Owen-Withee timeout with 12:19 to go.

Arndt’s free throws after Mann’s fourth foul put the Blackhawks on top, but James answered with her go-ahead 3. Owen-Withee took the lead for good when Madi Mueller hit two free throws with 9:28 left after grabbing her own rebound.

Mann’s stellar two-year run with Gilman ended with a 17-point, 10-rebound double-double. She was held to just four field goals, but she was nine of 10 from the free throw line.

James scored six points on two 3-point makes and had five rebounds. Olynick scored five points and had eight rebounds. Drier added her first-half basket and had four rebounds and three steals.

While the Pirates had just four scorers, Owen-Withee got scoring from eight sources, led by Mueller’s nine. Petersen scored eight and Capetillo had seven.

Both teams only made two 3-point shots. Gilman was two of 15 and Owen-Withee was just two of 22 from deep, so that part of Gilman’s plan certainly worked and the Pirates had a 34-28 rebounding edge. The Pirates made 12 of 17 free throws, while Owen-Withee was eight of 16.

Owen-Withee turned a couple more offensive rebounds into points and a couple more turnovers into points, which created the separation.

Danielle Mann is Gilman’s lone loss to graduation, and it’s a big one, but the Pirates hope their late-season run creates momentum going into next season.

“I feel like the girls are a good example for the younger teams coming up that you might have a slump mid-season or whatever, and you could just give up,” Nancy Mann said. “But this group just kept working hard in practice, just kept trying and working hard, hard, hard and playing as a team and then look at where they got. They won a regional plaque, they got this far. It shows what you can do.

“They’re a really great group of girls. I hope they continue to work on their game and have a good season next year.”

Gilman’s Allison Olynick gets right in the face of Owen-Withee’s Reina Arndt while Aubrey Steinbach tries to get in Arndt’s passing lane during the first half of Thursday’s WIAA Division 5 sectional semifinal. MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS