L-C girls tied at top of NEC

Beth Budnik likes what she sees so far as her Spartans are unbeaten in North Eastern Conference play heading into a big game at Denmark Friday.

L-C beat Marinette 63-54 Tuesday night, while the Vikings lost their first game of the season against Little Chute.

“Hats off to Marinette, because they threw anything and everything at us,” said Budnik. “We knew we were probably going to see a box-and-one on Brianna (Bray), so it’s great to see other girls step up.”

Sienna Blohowiak led the way with 18 points, 14 of them coming in the second half. Chloe Host added 16, 10 of them in the final 18 minutes. Alayna Deprez had 11, Bray seven and Alana Mrotek six.

“We are finding each other a lot better, we’re seeing the floor,” Budnik said about the team’s four-game winning streak after an 0-3 start. “People cutting and knowing where they’re cutting. Making that extra pass. We talk so well on defense — not tonight so much — and our half-court man-to-man is what we hang our hat on.”

Last Thursday, Bray scored 32 points in a 68-32 win at Waupaca. She had five three-pointers. Deprez added 11.

Meanwhile, Algoma beat Sevastopol 43-37 last week and Southern Door 51-47 Tuesday. Jadyn Nellis has had the hot hand with 15 at Sevastopol (three 3s) and 19 against the Eagles (five 3s). Sadie Rikkola had a dozen against her former team last week, and 11 vs. Southern Door. She had five three-pointers combined in the two games. Claire Gerdmann has also come on, scoring 10 vs. the Pioneers and nine against the Eagles.

Algoma Coach Mark Zastrow was pleased with the win at Sevastopol despite his team missing a lot of opportunities and making some questionable passes.

“We’re coming off of this stretch of four games and no practices,” Zastrow said. “It’s one thing to sit and run our plays. It’s another to be able to play basketball while running our plays, and that’s what we can get better at. We’ll put the TV on and watch some film, then get back to practicing and fine-tuning some of the things that will help us in the long run.”

Finally Tuesday, Kewaunee blew out Peshtigo 72-33. Gabby Stangel had 19 points, 16 of them in the second half, while Summer Walechka added 16, Jade Kroll 14 (12 in the second half) and Braelyn Chevalier nine. The Storm led 41-23 at halftime, then outscored the Bulldogs 31-10 the rest of the way.

Algoma is at L-C for a boys and girls doubleheader Tuesday. It starts with JV games at 4:30 p.m., then the varsity boys at 5:45 p.m. with varsity girls to follow.