Nicolet Girls Hold On To Down De Pere 53-47

Basketball is ordinarily a four-quarter game.  Coaches always stress to their teams that they need to play a full four-quarter game if they are to be successful.  However, when both teams fail to play a full four-quarter game, it becomes a battle of the survival of the fittest.

The Nicolet girls basketball team built up a 20-point lead at halftime, yet barely held on to knock off De Pere 53-47 in the WIAA Division 1 "Super Tuesday" contest — delayed to Thursday by weather — and advance to the state semifinals at the Kohl Center on Friday.

The Knights (24-2) face Eau Claire North (24-2) about 6:35 p.m. The other semifinal pits Pius (25-1) vs. Middleton (25-1).

“I think DePere just adjusted to how we play,” said Nicolet coach Corey Wolf.  “They might not see teams like us maybe athletically, but I think they made some adjustments.  I think (DePere Coach Kelly McNiff) did some really good things for them at halftime, and we struggled a bit in that third quarter.”

Early on it seemed like the Knights had things going completely their way.  They jumped out to a 10-0 lead while DePere struggled to even get off a shot.  Nicolet was relentless in its full-court pressure and trapping at the timeline.  DePere seemed flustered and turned the ball over on its first four possessions.

Nicolet was able to capitalize on its opportunities and led 14-6 after one quarter. Yet it was the second quarter where Nicolet almost put the game away.

Led by seniors Ashley Green, Gaby Bronson and Alex Cohen, the Knights outscored De Pere 21-9 to take a 35-15 advantage into the locker room.  Pouring salt in the wound was the fact that senior Rachel Travia nailed a 3-pointer at the buzzer that stretched the lead to 20.

The saying goes that turnabout is fair play, and the De Pere Redbirds tried to prove that theory correct.  They would go on a 9-0 run and hit six consecutive free throws to cut the lead to 45-36 after three quarters.  Sophomore Morgan Anderson led the charge with seven of her team-high 12 points in the quarter.

Clinging to a nine-point lead to begin the fourth quarter, Nicolet was still back on its heels.  DePere stepped up its defense and strarted crashing the boards better.  However, the Redbirds couldn’t seem to get over the edge.

Nicolet became more conservative on offense and ran off over a minute and a half on one possession. Finally, desperation was setting in for DePere and it started to force 3-point shots.  When they would miss, they would foul right away, and with Nicolet in the bonus, it seemed apparent they might be home free.

However there was a little drama left as Cohen and junior Brittney Fair would miss the first of a pair of one-and-one opportunities that De Pere would rebound. 

DePere just could not find a way to get off a good shot, and in the end merely ran out of time.

Wolf was more than relieved when the clock finally hit zero.

“They took it at us, got some good looks, they moved the ball,” said Wolf.  “They got what they wanted and took it at us, and I thought they made us play their game and we struggled at it.”

As for their killing of the clock, she was proud of her team’s patience.

“The clock was our friend at that point and we tried to work it as much as we could  trying to use our patience to get a good shot," Wolf said, "and sometimes you’re better off running a minute and a half off the clock than scoring a basket.”

Ashley Green paced the scoring attack with 16 points, while Alex Cohen chipped in with 15 of her own.