GILMAN GIRLS BASKETBALL - First shot gets Mann to 1,000 in Tuesday loss

GILMAN GIRLS BASKETBALL

It was somewhat unfortunate Gilman’s Danielle Mann came up one point short of the 28 she needed Friday to reach the career 1,000-point milestone at home, but she wasted no time getting that elusive point Tuesday.

Just six seconds into the Pirates’ Eastern Cloverbelt Conference game at Greenwood, Mann’s opening 3-point shot from the left wing swished through the net to give her 1,002 points, spanning a prep career that has been split between Rib Lake and Gilman high schools.

She finished with 10 points in a physical grinder that ended in a 42-33 loss to the Indians.

“That was pretty cool,” Mann said Wednesday. “I definitely did not expect it to be the first shot of the game. I’m glad it happened fast and that we could just play the game. When I shot it and it went in, I think basketball just slipped my mind. I realized I probably should’ve kept going, but I was jumping with my teammates. Everyone was just so happy. It was cool.”

Mann is in the midst of a stellar senior season with Gilman, where she is averaging 20.5 points and 9.7 rebounds as the team’s lone senior. Of her 1,009 points, 369 have come this year and 331 were scored last season, giving her an even 700 in two years with the Pirates. She recalled her first varsity points with Rib Lake being on a rebound putback. She was a second-team All-Marawood North selection as a sophomore with Rib Lake before a family move took Mann across Taylor County just before her junior year began.

Mann is the third Pirate in the last five seasons to reach the 1,000-point milestone, joining Grace Grunseth in 2019-20 and Tatum Weir last year.

“Honestly it helped that I played volleyball first so I got to know the girls and stuff like that,” Mann said of the move last year. “Then it was easier to transition to basketball. Plus we had such a small team last year that we were all so close. I think that helped. Having Tatum was great because she is so positive and such a good leader. Playing with her was so much fun. I really do like this group.”

Along with great teammates, Mann is grateful for the coaches and, especially family members that have helped her get to this point.

“First grade is when I think I first picked up a basketball,” Mann said. “My family is a huge basketball family. It’s in my blood. I love it. I’m very grateful to have a little sister (Aubrey) who’s also in basketball so that helps. We have fun playing little games here and there. My grandma (Nancy Mann) has been a really big part of the player I am today. She has put me in camps and she’s helped me all the way through.”

A solid group of friends and students from Gilman made the trip. Mann said, in a way, coming up a point short in Friday’s game against Augusta was a blessing because the members of the boys program were out of town at Owen-Withee. On Tuesday, they were able to be there.

“The game was all right,” Mann said. “We just had a lot of little mistakes here and there. (Greenwood is) a good team, a very good team this year all-around. They rebound really well and they have a few good shooters.”

The Pirates are 8-10 overall and 3-6 in conference play with six regular-season games remaining. When she graduates, Mann said she isn’t sure where she’ll attend college but she’s looking at studying exercise science to hopefully become a physical therapist. For now, she wants her team to get the most out of what’s left of the 2023-24 season.

“Winning of course is the goal the rest of the season, especially these conference games coming up, these second-round games,” Mann said. “Playoffs, hopefully we can go far there. Just keep playing as a team, keep growing together and getting better. It’s a good group.”

Greenwood held a slim 17-14 halftime lead in Tuesday’s game and was able to extend slowly but surely in the later stages. The Indians completed a season sweep of Gilman, adding to a 36-33 win from Dec. 14, and improved to 7-3 in league play and 13-6 overall. The Indians got 12 points and 16 rebounds from Tysen Lindner and 10 points from Tatym Travis.

“It was a physical game, very physical,” Gilman head coach Tammy Weir said. “We had too many turnovers, but played hard and stuck in there with the physical play.”

Kayleigh James continued her recent offensive surge, scoring nine points and adding six rebounds. She had two assists and two steals. Claire Drier had six points and seven rebounds. Allie Olynick had four points and four rebounds, Addy Vick had a basket and four boards and Jaylyn Orth was two for two at the free throw line.

Gilman had 21 turnovers compared to Greenwood’s 11. Greenwood outscored Gilman 16-10 at the free throw line and the Pirates were just 10 of 37 overall from the field.

Gilman gets its second meeting with league powerhouse Neillsville out of the way on Friday. The Pirates host Loyal, a team that beat them 54-51 on Dec. 22, on Feb. 1.

Gilman 57, Augusta 49

The officials let some contact go Friday night and Gilman took advantage, collecting 23 offensive rebounds and 48 overall in a 57-49 home win over Augusta in nonconference play. Mann had a monster double-double with 27 points and 15 rebounds to get to 999 career points, plus she had four assists and four steals in the win. James did some key work as well with 13 points and nine rebounds and several key baskets down the stretch. Vick had five points and nine rebounds.

“We really took care of the ball with only nine turnovers, and our rebounding was off the charts,” coach Weir said.

After an early 7-2 deficit, Gilman never trailed the rest of the way. The Pirates led by nine in the first half and settled for a 2622 halftime lead. The Beavers tied it at 2626, but Mann fed Claire Drier for the goahead basket and hit a 3-point with 13:30 to go. Free throws by Olynick, Orth, Mann and James opened up a 36-26 lead with 9:23 left. James hit pull-up jumpers from the free throw line to keep the lead at double digits at 39-28 and 41-31. She also had two buckets in the clinching stretch late, taking a hard drive to the rim and getting the ball to spin in for a 49-36 lead and she converted another tough drive that made it 51-40 with 2:38 left. That was followed by Vick’s defensive rebound and end-toend push for a score that ended all hope for Augusta, who fell to 2-14 at the time.

Orth had five points, four rebounds and two blocked shots for Gilman, Olynick had four points and five boards, Drier had a bucket, four rebounds and three steals and Aubrey Steinbach added a free throw and two rebounds.

Gilman outrebounded the Beavers 4831, forced 16 turnovers and was 13 of 23 from the free throw line, while Augusta was nine for 16. Gilman also had a slight edge from behind the 3-point arc, making six of 21 while the Beavers were four of 21, and made their last two in the final 30 seconds when it was too little, too late.

Brooklyn Krueger led Augusta with 15 points, while Stella Zank added 12.

The Pirates snapped a mini two-game slide Thursday by making 20 of 35 free throws, including 18 of 30 in the second half, in a 58-54 win over conference rival Colby.

The Pirates turned an early 11-5 deficit into a 17-0 run and a 22-11 lead mostly by being able to push some tempo and get transition baskets before Colby’s man-toman defense could settle in. The Pirates led 31-21 at halftime when Steinbach got a steal and got the ball to Mann, who found James for another transition basket with five seconds left.

But the offense went a bit stagnant in the second half and the Hornets chipped away, eventually taking a 41-40 lead on two Alia Hamus free throws with 5:53 left. Fouls stacked up for both teams in the half as they combined for 42 free throws in the half after just six were shot in the first half.

Gilman got some fortunate bounces at times at the free throw line, but their work there was key as Colby was just eight for 19.

“Free throws were sometimes off, but they won it for us,” Weir said.

The game was tied at 47-47 after Colby’s Angelique Hernandez made one of two free throws with 3:11 left. On the ensuing possession, Orth rebounded her own miss and got the ball to Olynick for the short go-ahead bucket. Mann’s steal led to two free throws with 1:39 left and a four-point lead. A Harrison Schmitt free throw got Colby within 51-48 with 1:13 left and the Hornets regained possession, but Lilly Brzezinski missed a mid-range shot and the possession arrow on a rebound tie-up went to Gilman with 49.9 seconds left. Mann sank two more free throws, the Pirates rebounded a Lexi Vanderhoof miss and James sank two free throws with 32.4 seconds to go for a 55-48 lead.

Vanderhoof banked in a 3 with 22 seconds left and Brynn Polivka hit at the buzzer, but that wasn’t enough for Colby to overcome three more free throws from Mann.

“This was a good one,” Weir said “A close and fun game against a very scrappy team.”

Mann, who scored 42 points in Gilman’s 61-48 win over the Hornets on Dec. 8, led the Pirates with 24 points in this matchup. James hit double figures with 10, Olynick scored eight, Steinbach had a solid outing with six first-half points, Orth scored five, Vick made three of six second-half free throws and Raygen Soper had a first-half basket.

Mann had 10 points to complete a double-double. Olynick and Orth each had eight rebounds and Vick had six. Gilman had a 34-31 rebounding edge. Orth blocked three shots, five players had two assists each and Orth and Mann each had steals. Gilman turned the ball over 19 times, while Colby had 17 turnovers.

“We had a few too many turnovers, but overall the turnovers and rebounding was pretty even between the two teams,” Weir said. “The difference was in our shooting.”

The big first-half run started with a 16-foot, banked-in jumper by Steinbach. Orth hit a floater in the middle of the lane, Mann tied it with a strong post move, Soper scored in transition, James got to the rim on a hard drive from the right side, Mann sank a 3 and then found Steinbach on a long outlet pass. Steinbach was able to finish with a nice shot fake. Orth scored again before Vanderhoof finally stopped the run with two baskets for Colby. Mann and Steinbach then traded assists and transition baskets for a 26-15 Gilman lead.

Polivka led three Hornets in double figures with 15 points. Vanderhoof and Hernandez scored 11 each.

Friends and teammates celebrate the 1,000-point milestone with Danielle Mann (14) following Tuesday’s game in Greenwood. HEATHER ORTH PHOTO