Lions beat Oostburg in opener

New Berlin - New Berlin Eisenhower girls basketball coach Gary Schmidt was happy with his overall team's performance, especially if you throw out the final period.

The Lions (1-0) rolled to a 51-41 win over Oostburg on Friday in the Brookfield Central Thanksgiving Shootout, but they had a 36-16 lead going into the fourth quarter. Trailing 48-20 with four minutes left, the Flying Dutchmen went on a 21-3 run the rest of the game to make the score respectable.

"We have to play 32 minutes of basketball and sometimes when we get big leads they pull back a little bit," Schmidt said. "I never want to rub it in. This is the first game of the year, so we have a lot of things to learn and you have to look at a lot of kids. You've got to play these kids to get them involved and acclimated.

"There were some things we wanted to see and we did, but we will certainly have a laundry list of things to go over on Monday."

Eisenhower looked like the Lions were ready to defend their title and make a run at a state tournament berth to start the game. They led 12-2, 19-3 and then 21-6 to close out the first quarter.

"Overall I felt the first 27 minutes we did what we wanted to do," Schmidt said. "We played really hard. I thought we came out with intensity. We held them to 16 points in the first half."

The Lions usually start their offense with their defense and the opener was no exception. Oostburg forced up a few shots and Ike did a nice job on the boards.

"We didn't finish well, but this is game one and sometimes we like to think we're in mid-season form," Schmidt said.

Nicole Bauman was the only player in double figures with 16 points - three 3-pointers - and she had six assists and could have had at least a half-dozen more if the baskets had been converted. Maria Huibregtse and Jocelyn Stemper led the Flying Dutchmen with nine points each.

Ike junior Erin Ganzke came up with nine points in her first game back in almost a year.

"All in all I thought we did well," Schmidt said. "I thought Bauman did well. I was real pleased with Erin Ganzke. This is her first game back after an ACL and I thought she played really well. She was very poised out there."

The Lions play at Greenfield on Friday and then host Shorewood on Tuesday.

"We saw some things we were pretty darn excited about tonight," Schmidt said.