Warriors fall to Southeast co-leaders

Muskego - The Muskego girls basketball team could not handle either of the Southeast Conference's co-leaders last week.

The Warriors fell to Racine Case, 54-41, on Friday night and rival Franklin, 48-44, on Jan. 3 to slip to 3-2 in the SEC and 6-4 overall, with a three-game losing streak.

A tough Case

Case's stifling defense shut down the Warriors' plan of attack and created several turnovers over the course of the game, while, on offense, the Eagles were able to consistently work the ball inside the paint to set the tone of the game.

"Overall, we played great defense, had good speed, handled the ball well and made good decisions," said Case head coach Willie Maryland.

The Warriors lost possession 24 times during the game, while Case lost the ball just 10 times.

"The biggest difference was the turnovers," Muskego coach Brian Hirtz said. "When you turn over the ball that much against a good team, it's going to hurt you. They're a high-pressure team - they created a lot of those turnovers themselves. But we have to take care of the ball."

Case's My'Kale French intercepted an inbound attempt on the Warriors' side of the court and was fouled on the subsequent layup attempt, draining both free throws for a 7-5 Case lead. Shortly thereafter, a jump ball went Case's way, and the possession led to another basket.

The Eagles' full-court pressure continued to cause problems for Muskego in the second quarter, as Brette Logic intercepted a Muskego inbound and, with little opposition around her, fired for three points.

Jessica Cattani sunk a 3-point basket to open the second-half scoring before five free throws for Muskego cut Case's lead to just eight. The Warriors remained within eight at the end of the third quarter on a free throw by Amber McDonald.

After that, though, they could only keep pace.

Jessica Mlachnik and Ashley Colla hit 3-point field goals. Mlachnik also led the scoring for her team with 12 points, followed by Cattani with 11.

Tight loss to Franklin

Against Franklin on Jan. 3, the Warriors grabbed an 8-0 lead and had the Sabers stifled for much of the first half with an active 1-3-1 zone defense, but could not maintain control.

"We started out playing tough," Hirtz said, "but we didn't play very smart. We got ourselves in foul trouble. Just dumb fouls, where we were caught reaching. When we had to put our starters on the bench that's when (the Sabers) were able to get back into the game.

"Give credit to (the Sabers) though. They withstood the firestorm (in the first quarter) and kept their composure."

The Warriors took their last lead of the contest when Julia Keegan hit a three-pointer from the wing with 4:54 remaining that made it 37-34, but the Sabers quickly tied it up on a three of their own from Katie Nord (team-high 12 points).

Franklin guard Cassidy Mihalko (11 points) got out on the break for a three-point play with 4:13 remaining. Cattani (13 points) hit a layup off a steal to make it 41-39 with 2:36 left.

After three Saber free throws, Mlachnik netted a driving layup to cut the lead to 44-41. Mihalko hit two free throws, then Colla nailed a three-pointer to make it 46-44 with 2.9 seconds remaining. A pair of Franklin free throws sealed the game.

"We had opportunities to put it in the hole a lot more often than we did," said Hirtz. "We had a huge size advantage (three players over 6 feet tall while the tallest Saber was just 5-foot-9) and we should have monopolized things inside but we didn't get it done."

The Warriors welcome Oak Creek (3-2, 8-3) at 7:30 p.m. on Friday.

Steven L. Tietz also contributed to this story