Vikings girls lose heartbreaker to Pewaukee, 44-42

New Berlin - The day will probably come when the New Berlin West girls basketball team finishes off a heavy favorite like Pewaukee. Friday night's game will have to count as a learning experience.

The Vikings (1-1, 0-1) led almost the entire night, but Pewaukee's Jordyn Swan hit a pair of free throws with 13.9 seconds left, and the Woodland Blue Division favorite Pirates won at West, 44-42. A final 3-point attempt went for naught, and the young West team was left to lament a 2-for-9 showing from the charity stripe in the fourth quarter.

"They're the veteran team," West coach Corey Scheel said, referring to a Pirates squad that returns four of its top five scorers from a team that went 22-2 last winter.

"They're the ones that have been here before. A lot of our girls are still learning how to finish games like that. I've got sophomores and juniors mostly playing out there, and they're only going to get better and smarter."

Late tie, late foul

Anne Kaczynski hit a 3-pointer with 39 seconds left to tie the score at 42-42 for West, but the Pirates quickly pushed the ball down the floor after the ensuing timeout, and Swan drew contact on a shot attempt. Swan, one of the state's top seniors, was saddled with foul trouble and finished with just five points, but she hit the biggest shots of the night.

"If I'm going to have anyone at the line in the last 10 seconds, I'd want it to be Jordyn Swan," said Pewaukee coach Todd Hansen. "She didn't have many points tonight, didn't have many looks, struggled, but she went up there as a senior All-State player does and makes them when she has to make them."

West did not convert on its own opportunities at the line, including a huge opportunity with 2:59 to play. With the score tied at 33, Pewaukee's Natalie Wood (16 points) was called for a technical foul after voicing her displeasure to a foul call that gave West bonus free throws.

The Vikings missed the front end of the bonus, then both of the technical free throws. West did record two points on free throws resulting from the ensuing possession, but Pewaukee's Emily Wirth followed with a 3-pointer with 2:14 to go and gave the Pirates their first lead of the game.

"We had the game definitely won," Scheel said. "We battled. We played a strong 24 minutes, but we have to put together 32. It's game two of 22, so we have a long way to go, and I made sure to tell them that."

New Berlin West led by as many as eight points in the first half and had a seven-point edge in the second half. When Pewaukee drew even for the first time in the final seconds of the third quarter since being scoreless, Lizzie Kuhl drilled a 3-pointer at the buzzer to make it 29-26.

Post player hard to defend

Junior Stephanie Turner, already a feel good story after returning from an injury that cost her all of last year, was difficult to stop in the first half and finished with 16 points. The 6-foot-2-inch post was one of four non-seniors in the starting lineup for a team with just two seniors on the overall roster.

"Around the basket, you see that she's quick," Scheel said. "To be smart with her, we have to give her a rest every now and then so she can get out there and play defensively. She's a monster.

"You see how dominant she is. The thing we have to learn is to play around her. We knew they were doubling; we just have to make those shots from the outside."

The defensive assignment on Turner fell frequently to Wood.

"I definitely feel we didn't have our best game, but at the same time, I think they're going to use this as motivation next time," she said. "We'll have to come out stronger. They're a force to be reckoned with."

The Vikings opened the week by rolling over West Allis Hale, 76-26, on Nov. 29 at home.

Scheel had 11 players score in the non-conference win over the Huskies led by Turner, who scored 19 points on eight field goals and 3-of-5 from the free-throw line.

Beth Ver Haagh added 13 points, while Rebecca Gasper and Kaczynski added nine points each.

The Vikings led 39-14 at halftime and then came out and held the Huskies to four points in the third period to take a 55-18 lead into the final quarter.