Columbus gets early jump on Gilman girls, clinches second place

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For the second straight night, the Gilman Pirates got off to a slow start and it burned them in Tuesday’s outing, a 6040 drubbing at the hands of Columbus Catholic.

In what was expected to be a closelycontested battle for second place in the Eastern Cloverbelt Conference, the outcome was instead decided quickly when the Lady Dons scored the game’s first 11 points and tore out to a 32-9 lead that eventually turned to 34-11 at the half. The Pirates didn’t really find any consistent offense until the last eight minutes and, by then, it was far too little, too late.

“Columbus came out strong and we didn’t,” Gilman head coach Tammy Weir said. “It took us a bit to get going. So, that’s two slow starts in a row. Hopefully we can get it out of our system and start strong on Friday and going forward.”

The Dons clinched a spot in the Cloverbelt Conference’s second-place crossover game on Feb. 18 by improving to 10-3 in league play and 14-8 overall. Gilman (13-7) finished conference play at 9-5 and clinched a spot in the Feb. 16 third-place crossover, which it will host. Loyal is a half-game behind at 8-5 and hosts Columbus on Friday, but even if the Greyhounds win, Gilman swept the season series with Loyal so it would win any tiebreaker for third.

Osseo-Fairchild or Fall Creek appear to be the most likely candidates as Gilman’s opponent next week.

In Tuesday’s matchup, Columbus Catholic’s 5-9 freshman was the game’s standout as she scored 12 first-half points and finished with a game-high 20. She was quiet early but helped the Dons really put it away late in the first half with nine of the Dons’ last 11 points, as the lead went from 23-9 to 34-11. Jenna Kibbel scored 12 points and had the primary defensive assignment against Pirate Tatum Weir in Columbus Catholic’s man-toman defense. Hailey Zimmerman added 10.

Danielle Mann was Gilman’s scoring leader with 16 points, seven of which came in the first half before she was whistled for her third foul and had to sit out the last 2:35. She completed a doubledouble with 10 rebounds and had two steals. Weir, after a two-point first half, came back strong in the second half and finished with 15 points, 10 rebounds, four blocked shots, two assists and two steals.

Gilman got another strong, scrappy outing from freshman Allie Olynick, who hit a late 3-pointer and had four rebounds, two assists and a steal. Ava Warner hit a 3-pointer before leaving with an injury in the second half. Jaylyn Orth hit a 15-foot jumper late in the first half and had two rebounds. Kayleigh James had a point, two rebounds and two assists. Claire Drier had three rebounds, two assists and a steal. Aubrey Steinbach had a rebound and an assist.

Before next week’s crossover, Gilman will host Alma Center Lincoln Friday and travel to Rib Lake Monday in non-conference matchups. The WIAA Division 5 sectional brackets also will be determined this weekend with the tournament set to begin on Feb. 21.

Gilman 63, Thorp 57

On Monday, the Pirates got another huge night out of Tatum Weir, who put up 28 points, pulled down 22 rebounds and added 10 blocked shots and three assists in a 63-57 non-conference win at Thorp.

“It was one of those games where it took us a little while to start playing,” Tammy Weir said. “We took care of the ball and I thought we had more turnovers than seven, but what it really came down to is our shots just did not want to fall the first half. In the second half we turned it on, turned up our defense with some man-to-man and took control of the game. Thorp shot very well.”

The Cardinals made 10 of 28 3-point shots to stay in the game. The Pirates offset that by getting the ball inside to Weir and others and making 19 of 38 two-point shots and 13 of 19 free throws. Thorp went to the line just 13 times, making seven.

The Pirates also got some scoring balance outside of Weir. James sank two of Gilman’s four 3-pointers and scored eight points. She had three rebounds and two assists. Warner had eight points and three boards. Mann had six points and eight rebounds. She had three steals and two assists. Drier dished out six assists while scoring seven points. Olynick was three for four from the field for six points and she had two assists.

Gilman had a slight 39-36 rebounding edge and forced Thorp into 14 turnovers.

Thorp’s difficult season continued as the Cardinals fell to 2-18 and 0-5 since the stunning death of their head coach Dennis Aken.

Gilman 51, O-W 27

On Thursday, Gilman wiped out the effects of a slow start with a 27-0 run that

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spanned the two halves and pulled away for a 51-27 win.

The Pirates shut out the Blackhawks for more than 16 minutes in that gameturning run, which turned a 15-14 deficit into a 41-15 blowout with six minutes left.

“We got everyone out on the court and played a nice, controlled game,” coach Weir said. “In the first half our shots didn’t want to fall, but in the second half we did very well. We only had 15 turnovers, played a great 2-3 zone defense and had some good control against the double teams and trap pressure from Owen-Withee.”

Weir had 26 points, 10 rebounds and five blocked shots to lead Gilman, Mann grabbed 12 rebounds while scoring six points and adding four assists and three steals.

Warner played a big role in turning the game around by sinking three 3s for all nine of her points.

The run started with two Weir buckets and James nailed a 3 with 1:18 left in the first half to give Gilman a 21-15 lead at the break. Warner drilled her first triple to open the second half, Weir got a threepoint play off a Mann assist and Werner knocked down her second 3 to send the Pirates off and running at 30-15 with 15:02 left. Weir hit a jumper and got a putback, Olynick got an offensive putback too and Warner hit 3-pointer number three before Mann’s rebound basket put the Pirates up by 26. Owen-Withee’s Kayla Rasmussen finally ended her team’s long scoring drought with a 3, but the damage was done, dropping the Blackhawks to 4-8 in the conference and 6-12 overall at the time.

James had a solid outing for Gilman with three points, five rebounds, two assists and four steals. Olynick had five points, including a late 3, two boards and two assists. Drier added a basket, three rebounds, five assists and three steals.

Rasmussen hit two 3s to lead Owen-Withee with six points.

Gilman knocked down seven 3-pointers on 22 attempts and was 13 of 26 on twos. Gilman outrebounded the Blackhawks 35-20 and forced 20 turnovers.