GILMAN GIRLS BASKETBALL - Neillsville overpowers Gilman girls; Greenwood escapes with win


GILMAN GIRLS BASKETBALL
Only three players scored for Gilman and three players did the vast majority of scoring for Neillsville in Tuesday’s Eastern Cloverbelt Conference girls basketball contest.
Safe to say, the Warriors’ trio was a bit more productive.
Madi Davel, Sydney Subke and reigning conference Player of the Year Paris Opelt combined for 54 points to power Neillsville to its 66-25 win over the host Pirates, who have fallen into a 1-5 slide after their 3-1 start. Gilman got 13 points from Danielle Mann, 10 from Claire Drier and a basket from Addy Vick, but that wasn’t nearly enough to stay with the Warriors (4-0, 7-2), who are in the driver’s seat to secure yet another Eastern Cloverbelt title. Gilman chose to go with its zone defense, a 1-2-2 look, to start and, for awhile, it kept Neillsville in check in the first half. The Warriors, though, got six points fro Davel following turnovers to go up 112. Drier got a basket for Gilman when Mann found her open and passed out of a Neillsville trap.
But from there, as usual, Neillsville’s defense didn’t allow many open looks. The ones Gilman got didn’t regularly fall and the Warriors slowly but steadily built a 29-11 halftime lead with one 3-point shot from each of its leading scorers playing a role in widening that lead.
Mann scored off a Drier assist and Drier got two scores inside, one of which came off an Allison Olynick assist to hang within 35-17. But Neillsville then went on an 18-0 tear, capped by 3s from Davel, Subke and Olivia Langreck to break the game wide open at 53-17. Mann’s 3 finally ended the run, but Subke and Davel sank triples in another 8-0 spurt to put the running clock into effect with the score being 61-20.
Mann’s 13 points included a three 3-pointers.
Davel, a freshman guard, finished with a game-high 20 points. Subke had 18 and Opelt scored 16.
Gilman, now 1-3 in the conference and 4-6 overall, heads to Loyal Friday to face a Greyhounds’ team that let a late lead slip away in a 37-34 loss at Columbus Catholic Tuesday. Loyal has played well otherwise and comes in at 2-2 in league play and 5-3 overall.
Tip time is 7:15 p.m.
Indians 36, Pirates 33
Gilman’s defense was much improved in the second half, but the offense never quite came around enough to overcome the rough first half in a 36-33 home loss to Greenwood.
The Indians, one of the early candidates for the Eastern Cloverbelt’s most improved team in 2023-24, raced out to a 25-16 halftime lead and then held on in the second half to improve to 2-1 in the league and 5-2 overall at the time.
For Gilman, the story was the lid on the basket for much of the game. The Pirates made just 12 of 51 two-point shots (23.5%) and were one for eight from 3-point range. The Pirates outrebounded Greenwood 41-34 and had a slight 24-21 edge in turnovers. Gilman outscored Greenwood 17-11 in the second half.
The Indians didn’t shoot it great either, but they did get three 3s to fall in 14 attempts and were 12 of 37 on twos, which was enough to get out of town with a win.
The Pirates got nice night from Olynick, a sophomore, who recorded an 11-point, 11-rebound double-double. Nine of the rebounds came on the offensive end. She had two steals and an assist.
Mann added another double-double with 10 points and 13 rebounds. Ten of those boards came on the defensive end. Mann also had six of Gilman’s 17 steals.
From there, scoring was slim. Vick had five points, four rebounds and two steals. Jaylyn Orth had three points, four rebounds, three steals and two blocked shots. Kayleigh James had a basket, three rebounds and three steals. Drier sank both of her free throws and had six rebounds and two assists.
Tatyn Travis scored 11 points and had nine rebounds for Greenwood, while Avry Wuethrich had 10 points, seven re- bounds and four assists.