It was a non-conference battle between two high-quality girls’ basketball teams last night at Lancer Circle.
Manitowoc Lutheran was able to pull away in the second half to defeat the Brillion Lions 55-43 at Lancer Circle.
Manitowoc Lutheran led 24 to 21 at halftime, with its pressure defense keeping Brillion scoreless for the first four minutes of the second half.
The Lions eventually got rolling offensively and were able to claw to within four, 45-41. However, the Lancers outscored the Lions 10-2 down the stretch to win by 12.
Brillion Head Coach Jeff Cappelle told seehafernews.com that the game came down to controlling the pace of play.
“One of the things we emphasized was to limit their runouts that lead to easy baskets,” he explained. “In the games I saw them play, they got easy transition baskets predicated off their pressure, and we gave up too many of those at the end of each half, which was key to the outcome of the game.”
Lancers Head Coach Mike Behnke gives his team credit for stepping up with the game on the line.
“We were able to get key rebounds and picked up our ball pressure in the second half, that led to some transition baskets,” he noted. “They had some players that made some unbelievable plays but in the end, we were able to rebound the ball and made some huge free throws.”
Manitowoc Lutheran, a 47 percent free-throw shooting team coming into Tuesday night, made five straight and nine of 10 from the charity stripe to put the game away.
Senior Makiah Krause led the Lancers and all scorers with 16 points, while senior guard Paydin Hale led Brillion with nine points on three three-point shots.
Manitowoc Lutheran improves to 10 and 2 while Brillion slips to 9 and 4 on the season.
The Lancers return to action Friday night, hosting Hilbert, while Brillion heads to Chilton to take on the Tigers Thursday night.
