Hornets fall to Wautoma, Lodi in holiday tournament

By Nathaniel Underwood

The Colby Hornets competed in a fourteam tournament held in Wautoma last Wednesday and Thursday, taking on the hosting Hornets squad and the Lodi Blue Devils. Colby fell in both contests, losing 85-58 against Wautoma and 80-46 versus Lodi.

Wautoma, 85-58

In a battle between Hornets, the hosting Wautoma squad got the better of Colby. While the visiting Hornets had a solid offensive performance, they could not quite keep pace with the just as effective home team. An impressive 52-point second half and 16 made three-point shots allowed Wautoma to come out victorious.

A 12-2 opening for Wautoma quickly put momentum in their corner. Colby answered with the next five points, getting baskets from Angelique Hernandez and Brezlyn Boyer, but a three from Alayna Panich on Wautoma’s following possession kept Colby from bridging the gap any further. Panich was problematic all evening for the visitors’ defense, putting up 27 points and making six of her 11 three point attempts.

While Wautoma pulled their lead back out to double digits, Colby kept the deficit from growing out of hand. Two three-point shots from Hernandez and Lucia Perez at the end of the period cut the home Hornets’ lead back down to nine at halftime.

A hot start for Wautoma coming out of the half separated the two Hornet squads, however. They outscored Colby 12-3 in the opening minutes and the visitors were never truly able to recover. After holding even over the next few possessions, a 19-5 streak for Wautoma over the middle portion of the period gave them a comfortable 69-40 lead over the visiting Hornets.

Colby put up 18 points over the final six minutes of the contest, but that was largely matched by Wautoma’s 16 points. Lilly Brzezinski scored eight of the team’s points over this final stretch.

While Colby managed to shoot 40 percent from the field and 38.1 percent from beyond the three-point line, making eight of their 21 attempts from distance, their opponents were even more efficient, finishing with a 44.8 percent field goal percentage and hitting 16 of their 38 three-point attempts. Colby also could not force Wautoma into many mistakes, creating only nine turnovers by the opposing Hornets.

Hernandez led the team with 17 points and six assists, shooting 6-for-12 and hitting a trio of three-point shots. Brzezinski added 12 points and 11 rebounds in a double-double effort and Brynn Polivka added nine points. Harrison Schmitt and Dakota Hoeper had six points each, Boyer had four points and Perez had three. Alexis Vanderhoof rounded out the scoring with one point. She also had seven rebounds and four assists.

Lodi, 80-46

Turnovers and rebounding hurt the Hornets in their second game of the tournament, where they matched up with the Blue Devils. An 11-0 run for Lodi in the first period allowed them to pull away and by halftime they held a 23-point advantage.

The Blue Devils came away with 22 steals and forced forty-three total turnovers from Colby. They also outrebounded the Hornets 55-33, a difference fueled by 36 offensive rebounds for Lodi. While Colby had a better shooting percentage than their counterparts, the turnovers and rebounding differential led to a lopsided amount of shot attempts for the Blue Devils, where they attempted nearly double the number of field goals.

Over half of Lodi’s points came off a Hornet turnover and Lodi was able to convert their rebounds on the offensive side of the court into 29 second chance points. Colby, by comparison, had just 11 points off of turnovers and three second chance points.

Lodi also connected on 40 percent of their three-point attempts, knocking down 10 shots from beyond the arc.

Following a field goal from Lilly Brzezinski that tied the contest at 6-6, the Blue Devils were able to put up the game’s next 10 points. Angelique Hernandez broke Lodi’s scoring streak with a layup. Two free throws a few minutes from Hernandez brought the Hornets back within six.

The Blue Devils answered with another double-digit scoring streak, this time scoring 11 straight points and taking a 32-15 lead. While Colby had found a way to bounce back from the first big run, they could not find much consistency offensively over the period’s latter minutes. Lodi’s full court press made it difficult for Colby to cleanly transition into their offense and at times led to turnovers, allowing Lodi to extend their control over the contest. They outscored the Hornets 15-7 over the closing possessions and took a 45-22 lead into halftime.

Eight straight points for the Blue Devils to open the second half all but sealed the game. Baskets from Brzezinski and Hernandez and a free throw courtesy of Harrison Schmitt cut slightly into the 31-point advantage, but another 8-0 run for Lodi put the game out of reach.

Brynn Polivka and Dakota Hoeper combined to score 16 of the team’s final 19 points to help the Hornets generally keep pace with Lodi over the later half of the period. Polivka led the team with 12 total points followed by Hoeper and Brzezinski with nine each. Hoeper had a team high seven rebounds and three steals while Brzezinski added five rebounds of her own. Hernandez had seven points, Schmitt added five points and five rebounds and Alexis Vanderhoof and Olivia Krause had two points each.

The Hornets will face a tough road test in their next game, traveling to Neillsville on Thursday, Jan. 4 to take on the Cloverbelt- East leading Warriors. Neillsville is 9-2 overall and 5-0 in conference play. Paris Opelt leads the team with 15.7 points per game while Madi Davel and Sydney Subke also average double-digit points per game, posting 14.5 and 11.7 respectively. Game time is set for 7:15 p.m.