LA CROSSE AQUINAS 99, CHIPPEWA FALLS 64

It was back to the east and it was another Big Rivers Conference

team was charted. Again it was the home team that took it on the chin. Again a team is rebuilding after a conference championship. Seniors (and even juniors) are scarce at Chippewa Falls this year. Only one is around. The rest of the Cardinal crew is sophs. On the other end of the spectrum, Aquinas is also a returning conference champ. They won the Mississippi Valley Conference last year going undefeated in conference play and 27-1 overall with the only loss coming in the state title game to Howard’s Grove. But this year the Blugolds are not in the rebuilding phase. They are in the reloading phase. Aquinas is led by Lexi Donarski, a sophomore point guard that has already committed to Iowa State. The Blugolds did add a big piece to their puzzle with Courtney Becker, a 6-0 sophomore from Cochrane-Fountain City. Becker plays with North Tartan 9 during the club season, and at the tail end of the summer Donarski joined that squad in Ames. Besides the two sophs, Aquinas has three seniors (starters Whittni Rezin, Jessa Peterson and Kyah Steiner) that have recently committed to UW LaCrosse. All that firepower overwhelmed Chi-Hi. Fouls did play a part in the outcome. Quick fouls forced CF to go to the bench. Cardinal time outs (they burned through three by 9:05 in the first half), didn’t stop the onslaught. It was ironic that Aquinas used the first time out at 14:58 when leading 11-8. I mentioned fouls and typical of an early season game, I thought I was on a whistle stop train ride. There were 49 fouls called with a whopping 66 combined free throw attempts. Aquinas was better at the line with 28 cashed in (80%). The Blugolds pressure in the full and half court traps forced 34 turnovers.

As for the game flow, Aquinas clung to a one point lead (13-12) with 13:31 to go in the first half. By 12:02 to go, the Blugolds were up 10 (22-12). At half Aquinas was dreaming of the century mark with 52 already in the bank. Apparently Wisconsin is not a running time state. Aquinas easily had enough of a margin at the nine minute mark when running time kicks in in Minnesota. They had 90 with about five minutes remaining. They were on the door step with 99 with 1:30 left. Aquinas had three more possessions and four chances to score (three in the last possession) before the horn went off.

 

Team	PP100	scorer	PP100	Distributor	Rebounder	31 Club
LaCrosse Aquinas	113.8	Lexi Donarski 23	Lexi Donarski 143.8	Lexi Donarski 10	Courtney Becker 9	Lexi Donarski 43
Chippewa Falls	74.4	Alexis Zenner 16	Aaliyah McMillan 122.2	Aaliyah McMillan 5	3 with 6	Caelan Givens 23