If you saw just the fourth quarter of top-seeded Muskego’s girls basketball game against ninth-seeded Kenosha Tremper Saturday afternoon, you likely would have been shocked to see the Trojans scrappy play in the game’s final eight minutes gave Muskego problems.
Fortunately for Warriors fans, Muskego put in plenty of work in the first three quarters to withstand a shaky fourth and cruised to an easy 43-23 win over Tremper to claim their regional trophy.
“We haven’t played in a long while, so I think offensively we were a little rusty but I think defensively we played very, very well tonight,” Muskego head coach Brian Hirtz said. “I think they (Tremper) had nine points going into the fourth quarter so we were very happy with our defensive effort today.”
Find out what's happening in Muskegofor free with the latest updates from Patch.
The Warriors stormed out of the gates in their first game in nine days and built a 12-2 lead after the first eight minutes of action.
Muskego’s early success was in large part thanks to senior Alyssa Colla as the 5’11” guard found her stroke early and scored the final nine points of the quarter.
Find out what's happening in Muskegofor free with the latest updates from Patch.
“Once I get one or two in I’m pretty good I think,” Colla said.
That seemed to be the way things went for Colla as the future Northern Michigan Wildcat continued to pour it on from all over the court, finishing with a game-high 21 points.
“I thought Alyssa played well,” Hirtz said. “I thought she played within herself, had good shots, took good shots and just was a leader for us once again and played an overall good game. I thought she played very well defensively too.”
Muskego’s whole team played solid defense in the first half, holding Tremper to just four points en route to a 22-4 halftime lead.
The third quarter was much of the same as the Warriors forced countless turnovers and awkward shots as they stretched their lead all the way to 35-9 before the start of the fourth.
“We knew coming in it was going to be a very stiff challenge for us,” Kenosha Tremper head coach Rod Gross said. “We’re a very young team. We played well earlier in the week (against Burlington) but with Muskego’s pressure and their athleticism and their size as well, we just couldn’t get anything going.”
The Trojans continued to fight to the end, outscoring the Warriors 14-8 in the final quarter but it was too little too late for the team without any seniors on their roster.
Colla led the way for Muskego with 21 points while junior guard Jessica Mlachnik added seven.
Tremper sophomore Nwoye Green led her team in scoring with six.
Muskego’s next game comes against conference rival Franklin on Thursday evening at Burlington high school. The Warriors beat the Sabers in both of their regular-season meetings this year, the most recent being a 67-55 win on Jan. 28.