Long range attack, defense to carry Hornets

By Nathaniel Underwood

The Colby girls basketball team has started their season by splitting their first two games. They suffered a 69-29 loss to the Abbotsford Falcons in their opener on Monday evening but then bounced back to defeat the Thorp Cardinals 54-35 at home on Tuesday night. The team boasts another young roster this season, though there are a few varsity veterans who will help lead the squad this season.

The Hornets will be looking to improve upon their 5-18 record last season, though they will have to do so without the assistance of their only 2022-23 all-conference player, Hayden Willner, who graduated. That being said, they will return a handful of juniors who saw significant varsity minutes as sophomores and will be looking to build upon that experience.

Juniors Alexis Vanderhoof, Angelique Hernandez and Harrison Schmitt will all be returning with two years of varsity playing time under their belts and Lilly Brzezinksi also will come back after seeing more minutes towards the end of last year. Vanderhoof and Hernandez provided an outside shooting threat in the 2022-23 season and were among the team’s top scorers and Schmitt and Brzezinski look to be more involved on offense. Senior Olivia Krause will also be providing the Hornets with additional varsity experience off the bench.

There are also a number of new players who will be stepping up to the varsity squad for the first time this season. Seniors Lilly Froeba and Sydney Meyer, junior Lucia Perez and sophomores Brynn Polivka, Brezlyn Boyer and Alia Hamus will give the Hornets some depth.

Head coach Terry Schmitt has been impressed so far with the team’s shooting and believes that will be their key to success this season. While some of that was evident last year, the time put in to focus on the skill in the offseason has had a positive effect.

“I would say our strength is shooting, especially threepoint shooting,” he said. “I’ve got four girls that can shoot from anywhere and they’ve got the green light. Their summer workouts have been amazing for what they’ve been shooting, percentage-wise.”

The Hornets head coach also likes what he has seen in early practices from his team defensively, believing it to be another aspect of their game that they should be able to use to their advantage.

“They are very active defensively,” Schmitt said. “They’re very speedy and they get to places and cut things off and can be physical.”

Creating points off turnovers and creating pressure with a full-court defense was what kept the Hornets in games last year when finding points in the half court offense was difficult and they will hope to capitalize on that again this year.

While Colby finished under .500 both overall and in the conference last season, there were a number of close games that they were part of that they could not quite pull out the win. There were five contests that they lost by eight points or less that they held leads well into the second half, but were unable to come out with the victory. Two of those losses came to Columbus Catholic, a team that finished second behind Neillsville in the Cloverbelt- East. Schmitt is hoping that with more experience, the team this year will be more confident and composed when those types of situations arise.

“If we win those five games, where we lost in the last minute, that puts us in second place in the conference instead of where we finished,” he said. “We were right there. And when we played in Neillsville, we were up by six at halftime, which no other team did all year long. So, if our minds are right, we can beat anyone.”

“I think being young and having the mentality of ‘oh this could go wrong’ instead of having the positive thoughts of ‘we can do this’ hurt in those close games,” Schmitt continued. “I think we’ll see a difference this season, just with having another year of experience for a lot of them and having a more positive attitude.”

Keeping that composure and finding ball handlers will be some of the Hornets biggest challenges this season, according to Schmitt. Both of those came into play in their first contest against Abbotsford on Monday.

Colby was able to match Abbotsford in the early portions of the game, taking an 11-10 lead on a Harrison Schmitt three-point shot with 12:22 on the clock. However, the offense for the Hornets almost completely dried up after that, as the Falcons’ defense began to force Colby into making a number of mistakes.

Seven of their next nine possessions ended in turnovers, many of which were forced by high ball pressure defense from Abbotsford that pushed Colby to try to dribble to create separation or make difficult passes. The hometown Falcons were able to take advantage, taking a 10-point lead over that span and edging away in what had once been a close game.

Colby was only able to score five points over the final 12 minutes of the half as Abbotsford continued to lay down the pressure. They did not fare much better in the second half, being outscored 31-13 over the final 18 minutes of the contest.

The Hornets could not match the home team down low, being outrebounded 48-24 and giving up 32 points in the paint while scoring just four. Twenty-six offensive rebounds for the Falcons especially hurt, leading to 20 second-chance points.

Perez led the team with seven points, going 3-for-5 from the field. Hernandez added six points and a team-check

See COLBY GIRLS BB PREVIEW/ Page 13

2023-24 COLBY GIRLS BASKETBALL - The 2023-24 girls basketball team, pictured above starting in the back row left to right, are Lillynn Froeba, Brezlyn Boyer, Lilly Brzezinski, Brynn Polivka and Harrison Schmitt. In the front row, from left to right, are Alexis Vanderhoof, Angelique Hernandez, Olivia Krause, Lucia Perez, Sydney Meyer and Alia Hamus. The Hornets are coached by Terry Schmitt.

STAFF PHOTO/NATHANIEL UNDERWOOD

DRIVING INTO THE PAINT - Angelique Hernandez tries to slip past her Falcons defender along the baseline in Colby’s season opener against Abbotsford.

STAFF PHOTO/NEAL HOGDEN Colby girls BB preview

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high four steals and Polivka had four points. Schmitt finished with seven rebounds and three assists, leading the Hornets in those categories.

The Hornets bounced back the following night in their second game of the season, defeating the Thorp Cardinals at home 54-35.

Colby led for much of the game, but the Cardinals were able to keep things close in the first half, trailing by only five points heading into halftime. Neither team seemed to be able to find much traction on the offensive side of the ball in that first half, with Colby scoring just 17 points to Thorp’s 12.

However, the Hornets turned things around in the second half. Shots began to fall and Colby pulled away from their opponents under the offensive onslaught. After being slowed in the first 18 minutes of the game, the home team went on to score 37 points in the final 18 minutes, leading to the blowout victory.

Vanderhoof had a big second half to drive the Hornets second half performance. She scored 13 of her 17 points in the half to help Colby pull away.

Polivka added 13 points of her own in the victory, Hernandez ended the game with 12 and Krause came away with seven. The team also better showcased their ability to hit shots from beyond the threepoint line, hitting seven such shots in the win.

The Hornets will have some significant time off before their next game, which is not scheduled until Tuesday, Dec. 5. The team will go on the road for their first conference game of the season, facing off against Loyal. The Greyhounds were 9-5 in the Cloverbelt-East last year and swept Colby, winning 41-28 and 54-35. They are 1-0 so far this season, defeating Marathon 41-34 in their first contest. The start time for the Cloverbelt-East conference opener is 7:15 p.m.

SLIPPING PAST THE DEFENSE - Brynn Polivka looks to split two defenders against Abbotsford in Colby’s first game.

STAFF PHOTO/NEAL HOGDEN