Wausa girls earn win over Creighton; fall to E-PJ

WAUSA — Confidence remained high in the Wausa girls basketball program despite dropping the two opening games of the season.

It sure did pay off. The Lady Vikings earned a 51-48 win over visiting Creighton last week before seeing its offense struggle for the first time in a 55-34 loss to Elgin/Pope John in Wausa over the weekend.

The Purple and Gold came out of the gates strong against Creighton, building a quick 16-10 first-quarter lead, and extending their advantage to 29-24 at the halftime break. In the win over Creighton,

In the win over Creighton, Morgan Kleinschmit scored 20 points to pace the squad, while Brooke Kumm did a lot of the little things to finish with four points, 10 rebounds, four assists and three steals.

“For the Creighton game we had effort from every girl. Girls put their mark on the game and did a great job of understanding their roles on the floor,” Wausa head coach Brandon Kirby said. “Morgan did a great job of scoring, but Brooke accepted her role and Clara did a great job of being a floor general.”

Kirby said Kumm’s efforts have been inspirational.

“After seeing Brooke come back from a year and a half knee injury, this has been a great thing for us,” Kirby said. “She is a positive leader and works hard.”

Kirby said the team was a real rebounding machine against Creighton, cleaning the glass for 44 boards.

“In the end, we did a better job boxing out and going after rebounds,” he said. Against Elgin/Pope John, Clara

Against Elgin/Pope John, Clara Schindler led Wausa with 11 points while Kumm finished with seven points and eight rebounds.

“We struggled across the board to get any type of flow going,” Kirby said. “On the offensive side of the ball we just couldn’t get a bucket to fall,” he said.

Wausa put up 24 three-pointers but only got four to fall in the contest.

“We need to do a better job of balancing out our shot selection and look to be more aggressive,” he said.

Tuesday, the Lady Vikings traveled to Gayville-Volin north of the border at 6 p.m. before coming back home Friday for a date with defending D2 state champions Wynot.

“Wynot on Friday will be a great game,” Kirby said. “Wynot does a great job across the board. They are well coached and execute very well. I believe this is a game we can put ourselves in a position to win at the end. We will need to do everything right and focus one position at a time.”

But now the Lady Vikings have to overcome some of early season bugaboos.

“Overall, we struggle with being consistent,” Kirby said. “We still need to do a better job with the fundamentals - rebounding and taking care of the ball. However, everything we struggle with has nothing to do with talent and everything to do with what is between our ears. We must decide to want to fix things.” Kirby noted the play from Kleinschmit and Schindler for their scoring and game management respectively. “Brooke has accepted the role of being the player down low and going for the rebound,” Kirby said. “I told her that her job was to get rebounds and take care of the ball. She has done that and put in a few points.”

Kumm embraces these opportunities after being so long out of action.

“I missed it so much and I feel this is a bonus year and I am taking it out on the other teams,” Kumm said. “I don’t want to miss another game, but I play like every game could be my last. From experience, I know it might be and it’s kind of scary. But I am not going to hold back from the experience of playing basketball. I don’t see the point in that.”

As a sophomore, Kumm was a solid defender that admits she wasn’t a great shooter and would try to spell the older players where needed.

“I knew that role and I was OK because I had to do what was best for the team,” she said. “It’s not a single player game. Playing 1-on-5 is not going to work. “This year we have different strengths and weaknesses. There is me who may not be the best shooter, but I can get people moving down low and help our team through its weaknesses and they can help me through mine.”

Admittedly, Kumm is not satisfied with her own status quo.

“I always strive to be better myself and the team better – which is 10 times more important,” Kumm said. “I have seen teams where players play for themselves and that doesn’t work.

“To say I am content would not work.”

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