MENDOTA – Whatever it was that was preventing Mendota from playing at the level a good team should be playing at in post-season competition, the situation was remedied at halftime.
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MENDOTA – Whatever it was that was preventing Mendota from playing at the level a good team should be playing at in post-season competition, the situation was remedied at halftime.
After the Lady Trojans muddled through the first half, they emerged from the halftime locker room looking like a whole different unit. Their hustle and exuberance in the third quarter allowed them to separate from St. Bede and go on for a 43-29 win in an opening-round game of the Mendota Class 2A Regional on Feb. 6.
“I think we had some first post-season game nerves that kind of rushed us on offense early,” said Mendota coach John Hansen. “We buckled down and took control in the second half.”
After St. Bede’s Maggie Sons drained a three-pointer to start the game, Mendota went on a 10-0 scoring streak and looked like it was going to run away and hide. But the Lady Trojans went scoreless over the final two minutes of the quarter and St. Bede tallied a pair of buckets to make it a 10-7 contest after one.
The second quarter was nearly a mirror image of the first. Mendota got baskets from Amellia Bromenschenkel and Phalen Hessenberger, plus a pair of free throws from Bromenschenkel, that was only countered by a St. Bede hoop from Carly Eustice, to make it 16-9. Then Eustice and Bromenschenkel traded baskets to give Mendota an 18-11 advantage with 3:41 left before intermission. But Mendota went the rest of the half without scoring as the Lady Bruins tallied the final four points of the quarter to make it 18-15 at the break.
The Lady Trojans went to the locker room to regroup and they came out in the second half a different team.
Bromenschenkel nailed a three-pointer just 30 seconds into the half followed by a driving layup by Alex Barrera. Macy Bosnich got the Lady Bruins on the board, but Bromenschenkel converted back-to-back baskets to push the Mendota lead to double digits (27-17) for the first time in the game. After Naomi Ochuba scored for St. Bede, the Lady Trojans ran off six straight on hoops from Barrera, Bromenschenkel and Larkin O’Donnell to make it 33-19.
Ochuba scored the final basket of the third quarter and the first of the fourth frame to start the Lady Bruins on a 6-0 streak to cut the margin to eight (33-25), but they couldn’t get any closer. Mendota scored seven in a row later in the quarter to seal the deal.
Bromenschenkel led all scorers with 18 points, while Barrera added 10 tallies. Abby Phalen hauled down seven rebounds for the Lady Trojans and Bromenschenkel collected eight steals.
Mendota shot 37 percent from the floor, 57 percent from the line and had 25 rebounds.
