Spencer loses to Columbus in girls basketball

By Valorie Brecht The Spencer Rockets did not have quite enough fuel in the tank to overpower the Columbus Dons in their last matchup Friday night in Marshfield.

The first few minutes saw the teams neck and neck, with the score 10-8 in Columbus’ favor by the time five minutes had ticked off the clock. However, in the moments following, Columbus went on a 10-point run, mostly courtesy of senior point guard Gracie Wilczek.

The Rockets found themselves playing catch up for the rest of the half, starting with a 3-point basket from Carmen Krause. Junior Autumn Davis then picked up a layup for the Rockets, plus a free throw. Senior Montanna Kohls also made a 3-pointer later in the half and fellow senior Emma Nieman shot for two. However, that was not enough to counter the Dons’ strong offensive showing. Although Spencer put up 11 points after the score was 20-8, Columbus nearly doubled that, putting up 21 points to give them the 41-19 lead heading into the half.

“We struggled to get the ball in the post the first half,” noted Spencer coach Kyle Davis in an email. “We weren’t able to get the right angles, as well as our post being doubled and then tripled on the catch. The second half, we used ball movement instead of post entry to get shots.”

Spencer was able to use that strategy to score more points in the second half than they had in the first, picking up 22 points. The Dons slowed their pace, scoring just about the same as the Rockets with 24 points in the second. However, they had already established their lead and went on to win 65-41.

“We didn’t play our style of defense this game. Our rotations were on the slower side and we were over helping on the posts instead of staying out on their shooters,” wrote Kyle Davis.

Also hindering the Rockets was the fact that their lead scorer, Autumn Davis, was taken out of the game just a couple minutes into the second half after she collapsed on the court. As of Tuesday she was feeling better but “definitely not 100%” and would be undergoing some medical tests, said Kyle Davis.

Prior to her leaving the game, Autumn Davis scored three points. Various other players stepped up to fill in the gap, namely Krause, who had 12 points (all from 3-pointers); and Nieman and Kohls, who each had eight points. Other scorers were: Ema Schultz 2, Alexa Weber 2, Alina Jackson 2, and Hannah Schreiner 4.

Spencer pulled down 23 rebounds, Autumn Davis leading with seven.

The loss caused Spencer to fall to 2-6 in the Cloverbelt—East and 7-7 overall.

VALORIE BRECHT/STAFF PHOTOS