Pacelli girls hoops keep perfect season intact with 67-19 win over Tri-County

By Craig Marx

In a Central Wisconsin South girls basketball showdown between Tri-County and Pacelli on Tuesday evening, the Cardinals certified their conference dominance in a 67-19 victory over the Penguins led behind capitalization on turnovers and strong play inside the paint.

“We started off a little slow,” Coach Ross Jensen said initially. “We ended up crashing the boards and making use of the turnovers we created.”

Pacelli missed two early three-point opportunities and was slow to score on a number of Tri-County turnovers. As the Cardinals settled in, however, the floodgates broke loose as the Pacelli offense began to dominate.

The Cardinals dominated the inside lane play, offensive boards, and putback shots provided by Amelia Jacoby and her 14-point evening while Cassandra Vaughan equally put up 14 on the Penguins behind a fast break-led performance and overall head ups playing.

Novalee Schober two from long range, and led the team with 16 total points. Outside shooting was not much of an issue for Pacelli, as steals and turnover points rapidly changed the game after the opening few minutes.

Pacelli led 36-2 at the half, with Tri-County scoring its first bucket with 52 seconds remaining in the first to get themselves on the board.

The Cardinals once again owned the second half, and being up 64-14 with less than nine minutes left in the game, a running clock was imposed by the officials.

Tuesday’s win brings the Cardinal ladies to 5-0 on the season. Pacelli plays at Pittsville at 6 p.m. on Friday evening, and then onto Iola-Scandinavia next week Tuesday.

The Cardinal ladies will play three games at the Sentry Classic tourney (held at UW-Stevens Point) over the course of Dec. 28-30 with some times left to be determined.