Columbus girls basketball kicks off start to their season

MARSHFIELD--The Columbus Catholic Girls Basketball Team is enduring some growing pains and are working on team chemistry as they begin the 2024-2025 basketball season. They are a young team with only two players who have extensive varsity experience and a few others with minimal experience returning from last year. Varsity consists of one senior, four juniors, two sophomores and four freshmen.
Their first four games saw them traveling the Highway 13 corridor. First, they headed north until turning off on Hwy 102 to take on Rib Lake. The Dons held off a charging Rib Lake team in the second half winning a high scoring game 68-66. The Dons were up by five at the half. Clutch free throw shooting toward the end helped them stave off a defeat. Sophie Wilczyk and freshman Izzy Holz each scored 16 points with Hailey Hargraves, Abby Wojcik and Kate Casperson each scoring 8 points.
Their next Hwy. 13 trip took them to the Cranberry Classic in Wisconsin Rapids. Unfortunately, their first opponent on Friday was the highly ranked Assumption Royals returning a number of starters from last year. The Lady Dons stayed with them in the first half, trailing 25-18. In the second half, Columbus struggled getting into its offense as the Royals used a stifling defense causing numerous Dons turnovers. Assumption started the second stanza with an 11-0 run doubling up on the Dons, 36-18. Columbus continued to struggle while the Royals had a 21-0 run, later stretching their lead to 57-18.
Gracie and Sophie Wilczek , and Chayse Blenker each scored 6 points. The final score was 66-31. On Saturday, the Dons came out firing on all cylinders, spotting Nekoosa the first two points of the game, the Dons jumped out to 25-6 lead at the half. They continued to score at will, pushing the final score to 51-11. Sophie Wilczek and Izzy Holz led the team in scoring with 16 and 14 points respectively. Hailey Hargraves added six points and pulled down a team leading 15 rebounds. Wilczyk and Holz were named to the all-tournament team. Maddie Bernick was named to the Junior Varsity all tournament team.
The Dons’ final Hwy. 13 trip was the short drive to Spencer to take on the Rockets in the dome. Both teams struggled scoring, staying close until Spencer pushed the lead to 14-9 at half time. Columbus Catholic opened up an eight point lead with 4:44 left on the clock. The Rockets battled back, trailing by 3 with 56 seconds left. With 15 seconds left, Izzy Holz hit two free throws putting her team up by five. Spencer did manage a three pointer to make the final score 37-35. Gracie Wilczyk led the Dons with 10 points. Sophie Wilczyk (9), Hailey Hargraves (8), Izzy Holz (7) and Kate Casperson (3) rounded out the scoring.
Neillsville is the team to beat in the Eastern Cloverbelt Conference and they showed why as they spoiled the Dons’ home opener. The Dons did stay close for awhile, but the Warriors did what they always do. Pressuring the Dons into numerous turnovers, Neillsville pulled out to a half time score of 29-13. They continued to pour it on, ending the game with a 61-24 win. Kate Casperson and Izzy Holz each scored 6 points to lead the way for the Dons. Gracie Wilczyk (5), Abby Woycyk (3), Sophie Wilczyk (2) and Chayse Blenker (2) rounded out the scoring.