Running over a rival on the road:

By MITCH MAERSCH

Ozaukee Press staff

A fast start and no letup was enough for the Cedar Grove-Belgium High School girls’ basketball team to get by rival Ozaukee on the road last Friday.

The Rockets launched into a 22-7 lead nine minutes into the game and cruised to a 78-49 win.

The victory stopped the Rockets’ four-game losing streak and evened their record to 3-3 in the South Division of the Big East Conference and avenged two tight losses to Ozaukee last year.

“It’s a good comeback from last year,” sophomore guard Sophie Beightol said.

“We knew we just needed to come out and come hard right away because they’re super aggressive and these are always close, intense games. And we wanted some revenge from last year too,” junior Tara Schmitz said.

The Rockets’ full-court pressure right off the bat forced some turnovers and kept the Warriors’ offense off balance. Hot shooting erased a 5-2 early deficit, and the Rockets took control for the rest of the game.

Schmitz scored 19 points on 9-for-15 shooting and grabbed eight rebounds. Alexis Bahr, still battling the flu, scored 19 points on 7-for-13 shooting.

Beightol drilled a couple of threes early on her way to 11 points, and she had nine rebounds and six assists. Sophomore guard Grace Konzak made both of her three-pointers in scoring 11 points.

For Ozaukee, junior guard Caitlin Weyker had 18 points on 6-for-15 shooting, seven rebounds and three assists. Junior guard Natalie Miller had 18 points on 7-for-13 shooting along with five rebounds and three assists.

“They have been playing tough all season,” Ozaukee coach Linda Weyker said, also praising junior guard Meredith Clark.

“She’s a hard-working defensive player for us. She does a great job,” she said.

But the Warriors, who went to 1-6 in the Big East, struggled on the boards.

“We weren’t rebounding well tonight. We just didn’t do a good job of that,” Weyker said. “We’ll come back again.”

The entire team, however, was intact.

“We’re finally gelling as a team. We were mixing up lineups due to injuries and sickness,” Weyker said. “We finally for the last three games settled in on a lineup because now we have consistency. It just didn’t sink tonight.”

Konzak said the Rockets are doing the same thing.

“It’s awesome. We all played hard. We were working together. And we’re starting to mesh as a team, finally,” she said.

For Rockets’ second-year coach Mike “Bik” Bikman, it was the first time he beat Ozaukee, and he let his team know prior to tipoff.

“That’s exactly what I said before this game. I said, ‘She’s (coach Weyker) got me both times,’” he said.

“This was a big one for us. You get back into that conference win.”

The Rockets held a 41-24 halftime lead, and the edge reached 60-33 nearly halfway through the second half.

“Our goal was to really work up from the first half and then carry that into the second half instead of letting them get big runs and then us having to work our way back from that, so I think we did a good job of that,” Schmitz said.

“She’s (Schmitz) just an all-around good player. I probably want too much from her because she can play defense and offense,” Bik said. “She’s out there gassing. She’ll never want to take a break.”

With the game essentially decided and a few players in foul trouble on both sides, teams started emptying their benches as the second half wore on.

Eight Rockets scored while five Warriors tallied points.

Rockets fall at Manitowoc Lutheran

Cedar Grove-Belgium on Dec. 13 lost, 58-54, at Manitowoc Lutheran.

A comeback from a 28-17 halftime deficit fell just short.

Alexis and Olivia Bahr and Schmitz each had 11 points. Katelyn Morris had 10.

Lutheran’s Marissa Mehlhorn had 24 points and 15 rebounds.

The Rockets were to host Sheboygan Lutheran on Tuesday, Dec. 20 and nonconference foe Sheboygan Falls on Thursday, Dec. 22.

Ozaukee nets first win of season

The Warriors won at Kohler, 59-51, on Dec. 13.

Evelynn Geis had 19 points and 15 rebounds. Caitlin Weyker had 16 points, seven rebounds and four assists, and Miller had 15 points and eight rebounds.

For Kohler, Katie Schumacher had 12 points and nine rebounds.

“Kohler is a tough team. We played on Tuesday night with the entire team working together,” coach Weyker said.

Ozaukee lost at Kewaskum, 68-27, on Saturday. The Indians were ranked eighth in the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association Dec. 13 poll.

“We struggled to score Saturday night against their defense,” Weyker said.

Kewaskum led, 44-10, at halftime.

Miller had 11 points, and Caitlin Weyker had seven. Geis had six rebounds.

For Kewaskum, Julia Steger had 13 points, Ashley Vogt had 11 and Madilyn Dogs and Morgan Adams each had 10.

Ozaukee, 1-9, hosts Chilton on Thursday, Dec. 22.