Slow start sends Tosa West home

The Whitefish Bay girls basketball team came out with tremendous intensity on March 15 and ended the solid season the Wauwatosa West girls basketball team put together.

However, the Blue Dukes, after cruising to a 54-37 WIAA sectional semifinal win over the outmatched Trojans, were also blown out on Saturday in a sectional final by New Berlin Eisenhower, 48-23.

In the sectional semifinal game, Bay's 6-foot-2 sophomore center Maya Jonas led four Bay players in double figures with 15 points.

The Blue Dukes opened with a high offensive intensity against West, a team they had beaten in a much closer game earlier this season, 48-41, at Tosa West.

West in big hole early

That efficiency began immediately in the game played out at Waukesha North. Jonas won the tap and got the ball to point guard Elisabeth Johnston, who hit a streaking forward Lindsey Agnew, who cashed an easy layup just seven seconds into the game.

That nifty piece of execution began a 12-3 run to start the game, which was stretched to 20-6 at quarter's end. Bay hit six of its first seven shots and was 10-of-16 from the field for the quarter.

"We've had a really good two-three weeks of practice," said Jonas. "Our captains (Johnston, Agnew and Lauren Wigton) have really asked us all to step up and put a little added pressure on us.

"We were really ready for this game. It had been a long week (of practice), and we wanted to get back out there."

Bay coach Greg Capper said it was just a matter of time and patience before the Bay offense, which at times has struggled this winter, gathered itself and put itself on near-equal footing with the stout Blue Duke defense.

"I told you that we were young at the beginning of the season," he said. "We had three really good players who gained vital experience with that state trip last year (Jonas, Johnston and Agnew), but we had so many new juniors, new sophomores on the varsity."

Can't stop the Dukes

Yes, it did, as Bay ran a very efficient offense throughout the first half and carried a 32-15 lead into the break. Almost every basket had an assist to it and the Blue Dukes scored as easily in the halfcourt as they did in transition.

The lead got as great as 21 and never dropped below 14 in the second half.

"We just didn't show up at the start," said a disappointed Trojans first-year coach Ron Gavinski. "We played much better against them the first time around, a seven-point game, but they're a really good team and every time we made even a little push (in the second half), they answered with a bucket."

Trojans show improvement

Latasha Harmon led West with 11, while Jessica Pike had eight and Ashley Lindstrom seven.

Bay had tremendous balance behind Jonas, as Johnston, Agnew and Ava Stock each scored 12 points.

"You can press and run all you want, but eventually teams will force you into the halfcourt," Capper said. "We've worked very hard at getting better at that."

The much-improved Trojans finished with a winning record (13-12), their second winning mark in the last six years and a big improvement from last year's 8-17 record.

West was third in the Woodland-Black Division behind South Milwaukee and New Berlin Eisenhower.