Columbus Catholic girls basketball surges past Gilman
Dons snap three-game losing streak with home victory
By Paul Lecker
Sports Reporter
MARSHFIELD — The Marshfield Columbus Catholic girls basketball team came out of the halftime break on fire, using a big run to surge past Gilman 57-37 in its regular-season home finale on Monday night at Columbus Catholic High School.
A pair of 3-pointers from Jessica Trad and Natalie Pospyhalla gave the Dons a four-point halftime lead, and they used a 23-6 run during the first 11 ½ minutes of the second half to pull away and end a three-game losing streak.
Pospyhalla had two more 3-pointers to spark the second-half run. Abby Baierl added another from long range as Columbus Catholic (9-12, 6-10 Cloverbelt East) scored 13 of the first 15 points after halftime to go up 38-23.
Baierl would add six more points in the run that pushed the Dons to a 48-27 lead with 6:32 to go in the game.
“We needed this,” Columbus coach Rhonda Keding said. “Our 3-point shooting has been coming along. Natalie has been lighting things up the last four games. I’m glad someone is stepping up and taking those outside shots, which makes less stress for Abby and Jess.”
Baierl and Marissa Immerfall each finished with 12 points, Pospyhalla had 11, and Trad 10 for the Dons. Immerfall added a team-high 12 rebounds.
Columbus held Gilman (7-15, 4-12 Cloverbelt East) to 7 of 29 shooting after the Pirates had taken a 16-13 lead with about seven minutes left in the first half.
“We started out in a 2-3 zone, and they were just kind of lazy with that, but when I went to man-to-man, we really stepped it up,” Keding said.
Columbus Catholic wraps up its regular-season schedule Thursday at Osseo-Fairchild in the sixth-place game of the Cloverbelt Conference East-West Crossovers. The Dons open the WIAA Division 5 playoffs with a regional quarterfinal at home on Feb. 23 against Pittsville.
(Hub City Times Sports Reporter Paul Lecker is also the publisher of MarshfieldAreaSports.com.)
Dons 57, Pirates 37
Gilman 21 16 – 37
Columbus Catholic 25 32 – 57
GILMAN (37): MacKenzie Elwood 0 0-0 0, Kasee Burton 0 0-0 0, Katelyn Monson 1 0-0 2, Damryn Skabroud 2 0-0 6, Morgan Birkenholz 1 1-2 4, Taylor Hendricks 2 1-5 6, Kayla Schoene 2 0-6 4, Kayla Chause 5 5-6 15. FG: 13. FT: 7-19. 3-pointers: 4 (Skabroud 2, Hendricks 1, Birkenholz 1). Record: 7-15, 4-12 Cloverbelt East.
COLUMBUS CATHOLIC (57): Morgan Albrecht 0 0-0 0, Baylie Neider 0 0-0 0, Maren Seefluth 1 4-4 6, Kendra Baierl 2 0-0 4, Jessica Trad 3 2-2 10, Abby Baierl 4 2-2 12, Natalie Pospyhalla 3 2-2 11, Sierra Litwatis 1 0-0 2, Marissa Immerfall 5 2-6 12. FG: 19. FT: 12-16. 3-pointers: 7 (Pospyhalla 3, A. Baierl 2, Trad 2). Record: 9-12, 8-10 Cloverbelt East.
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