Eau Claire North Girls Basketball

1998-99 GIRL'S BASKETBALL RECAPS

November 28, 1998

North 41, DHSA 55 .. North Boxscore

DSHA guard shoots down North

By Mark Andrew Trapani

Eau Claire North girls basketball coach Chico La Barbera knew exactly what he wanted his team to do during its game Saturday against Milwaukee Divine Savior Holy Angels.

Deny Andrea Novak the ball.

The Huskies failed to heed their coach's warning, and they paid for it.

Novak, a 6-foot junior guard, scored 28 points, including eight from the free-throw line in the closing minutes, to lead the Dashers to a 55-41 victory over North in the second day of play at the Eau Claire Thanksgiving Showcase.

"We went to our delay game, and Andrea did a good job of running it," DSHA coach Bill Scasney said. "It was her first time running the point. I guess it was a good time to experiment with that."

Senior forward Kristi Gehring countered with 17 points and 12 rebounds to lead the Huskies. Junior point guard Scooter Aspen added 13 points and four steals before fouling out late in the fourth quarter.

The Huskies (2-1), who led 8-6 after the first quarter and 21-19 at the half, just could not stop Novak in the second half.

She scored 10 points in the third quarter and 12 more in the fourth as the Dashers (3-0) rallied to take the lead, then pulled away from the free-throw line.

"Once we got the lead we just decided to let our point player make some free throws," Scazney said. "Andrea did a good job of knocking them down, and that kind of sealed if for us."

While Novak was converting free throws, North was throwing the ball away and failing to hit open shots.

Pressing on offense and defense, the Huskies seemed to run out of gas as the game came to a close.

North made just two field goals in the fourth quarter. The first one by Erika Reeber came with 5:45 remaining and pulled the Huskies within two at 37-35.

But North wouldn't score another basket until Gehring's short jumper as the final buzzer sounded.

The Huskies had gone nearly six minutes without a basket, and it cost them the game.

"I don't know if we were tired or not," La Barbera said. "I know it seemed like all of a sudden we stopped blocking out and we couldn't score.

"It seemed like they had a lot of second-effort points in the second half. I thought that was a huge difference in the game."

DIVINE SAVIOR HOLY ANGELS (55)

FG-A FT-A TP: Katie Bova 0-3 0-0 0, Lauren Schmidt 1-4 0-0 2, Andrea Novak 10-19 8-10 28, Shari Khaja 2-6 0-0 4, Pam Simon 0-0 0-0 0, Melanie Kazel 1-1 1-2 3, Beth Haberli 3-8 0-0 6, Andrea Weinfurt 0-2 0-1 0, Gina Stilp 1-4 3-3 5, Ashley Carr 2-6 3-4 7. Totals 20-53 15-20 55.

EAU CLAIRE NORTH (41)

Beth Hoesnich 0-4 2-2 2, Scooter Aspen 2-10 8-15 13, Rachel Evjen 1-11 0-0 2, Erika Reber 1-3 0-0 2,Larissa Parr 1-7 1-4 3, Bridget Aspen 0-1 0-0 0, Kristi Gehring 7-11 1-2, Chandra Johnson 0-3 2-2 2. Totals 12-50 14-25 41.

Milwaukee DSHA 6 13 16 20 -- 55

Eau Claire North 8 13 12 8 -- 41

3-point goals: DSHA 0-2 (Bova 0-1, Khaja 0-1), North 3-10 (Gehring 2-3, Hoesnich 0-1, Aspen 1-2, Evjen 0-3, Parr 0-1). Rebounds: DSHA 41 (Carr 9), North 42 (Gehring 12). Fouls: DSHA 20, North 19. Fouled Out: DSHA, Carr. Turnovers: DSHA 15, North 21.

RECORD: Eau Claire North 2-1, DHSA 3-0.