2000/2001 Game Results Last Updated: January 30, 2001

January 30, 2001  

North 67, Hudson 56

Huskies harpoon Hudson for first

Rongstad leads North to top of BRC standings

By Steve Beaudry
Leader-Telegram staff

Staff photo by Andi Stempniak North's Lindsey Rongstad, left, battled Hudson's Megan Hanson (43) and Emily Anderson for a loose ball Tuesday.

Lindsey Rongstad stood in the growing darkness outside her locker room Tuesday night with a duffel bag on her shoulder and a smile on her face.

The duffel bag was light.

The smile was bright -- 1,000 watts, easy.

Rongstad's smile almost was as impressive as her performance moments earlier in the Eau Claire North girls basketball team's biggest game of the season.

If you saw the way the 5-foot-9 senior efficiently helped the Huskies dismantle Hudson 67-56 at the Doghouse in a battle for Big Rivers Conference supremacy, you can understand why Xcel Energy would be hard-pressed to duplicate the radiance of Rongstad's smile.

"We were so pumped and so ready for this game," Rongstad said. "Playing Hudson -- it's hard to describe. These are the games that you think about in the summer when you're playing ball and working out."

The win was the eighth straight for North (9-1, 14-2), which moved into sole possession of first place in the eight-team Big Rivers standings and bumped Hudson (8-2, 12-4) into a second-place tie with Eau Claire Memorial.

The surging Huskies' most recent loss was a 53-52 verdict to Hudson on Dec. 14 in which Rongstad scored a team- and season-high 15 points.

But in her new role this season as the Huskies' point guard, Rongstad isn't necessarily at her best when she's scoring.

"We need Lindsey Rongstad to be our distributor and our leader and to set the tone on the defensive end," North coach Dan Sippel said. "She did a wonderful job of that tonight."

Moving, directing, passing, harassing -- Rongstad did a lot of everything. Along with her eight points and eight rebounds, she held Raiders point guard Emily Anderson -- who'd averaged 9.9 points per game for the season and 13.3 over Hudson's last four games -- to five points.

Rongstad also set the Huskies' relaxed-but-confident tone during pregame warmups when she playfully sang along with the team's new anthem: Lil' Bow Wow's rap hit "Bow Wow (That's My Name)."

Several of her teammates, like Rongstad seemingly oblivious to the pressure accompanying the game's magnitude, joined in.

And, once the game started, all of Rongstad's teammates followed her in excelling in their roles. After the Huskies' 15-2 first-quarter run, they never trailed, thanks largely to:

n Larissa Parr. The 6-foot senior center had game highs of 20 points and 10 rebounds. Perhaps most impressively, she shot 8-for-10 from the free-throw line, from where she'd shot just 49.1 percent (27-for-55) this season.

n Amanda Eisold. The 6-foot sophomore forward lived up to her Rongstad-imposed nickname ("Little Larissa") and her Sippel-imposed nickname ("Big Bird," because of her height and bright-yellow ski jacket) by scoring a career-high 19 points.

Eisold, who played sparingly at the season's start, has averaged 11.0 points per game during North's win streak and 15.7 over the past three games.

n Anne Connell. The 5-foot-7 junior guard matched her career high with 12 points -- including an air-out-of-the-Hudson-balloon 3-pointer at the third-quarter buzzer that capped a 7-0 Huskies run and gave them a 49-37 lead.

n Kricket Whyte. The 5-foot-9 senior forward was her dependably suffocating self on defense, holding 6-foot-1 Hudson center Annie Nelson to two field goals. Nelson, who'd averaged a team-high 14.6 points per game heading into the night, lit up North for 19 points in the Raiders' win in December.

Whyte did such a thorough job gumming up Nelson's path and sightlines to the basket Tuesday, the Raiders almost completely abandoned their inside attack. If not for guard Molly Simon's four 3-pointers and team-best 14 points, Hudson would have been buried.

"We have a lot respect for Hudson," Eisold said, "but we're not afraid of them."

Nor should the Huskies be. Though the Raiders have won six straight Big Rivers titles and posted an 81-5 league record since 1994-95, North is responsible for three of their losses -- one in each of the past three seasons.

"Like Larissa said, the only way we can expect to get the same respect as the Hudsons and the Memorials is to beat them," Sippel said. "Well, that's what we've done."

HUDSON (56)

FG-A FT-A TP: Emily Anderson 2-5 1-2 5, Molly Simon 5-12 0-0 14, Jess Syfko 2-2 0-4 4, Megan Hanson 0-4 0-2 0, Annie Nelson 2-2 7-8 11, Liz Preller 2-5 0-0 5, Greta Tracey 1-1 0-0 2, Allison Obr 4-7 0-0 10, Jess Vadnais 1-4 2-3 5. Totals 19-42 10-19 56.

EAU CLAIRE NORTH (67)

Anne Connell 5-8 0-0 12, Lindsey Rongstad 4-10 0-1 8, Kricket Whyte 1-4 2-2 4, Andrea Thorsness 1-5 1-4 3, Larissa Parr 6-15 8-10 20, Heather Dekan 0-2 1-2 1, Amanda Eisold 8-10 3-4 19. Totals 25-54 15-23 67.

Hudson 7 16 14 19 -- 56

Eau Claire North 15 13 21 18 -- 67

3-point goals: Hudson 8-15 (Simon 4-8, Obr 2-3, Preller 1-1, Vadnais 1-1, Anderson 0-2), North 2-5 (Connell 2-4, Rongstad 0-1). Rebounds: Hudson 22 (Nelson 7, Simon 4), North 34 (Parr 10, Rongstad 8). Fouls: Hudson 19, North 18. Fouled out: Hudson, Simon. Turnovers: Hudson 18, North 17.

RECORDS: Hudson 8-2, 12-4; North 9-1, 14-2.

Beaudry can be reached evenings at 833-9212 or (800) 236-7077 or at steve.beaudry@ecpc.com.