Warriors slay stubborn Bison in regional first round

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

ROCKFORD — The North Iowa Bison came into the postseason with only four wins.

But earlier against their regional first-round opponent, the Rockford Lady Warriors, they only lost by 4 points.

If hosting Rockford was going to have an easier go this time around, it didn’t seem so as the Bison took a 15-14 lead at intermission and later swelled the advantage to 4 (20-16) early in the second half.

But the Lady Warriors were able to finally get into the Bison’s zone with their half-court offense, and cashed in some open-court buckets by way of their full-court defense, and advanced to the second round of the Class 1A Regional 2 Tournament with a 50-37 win Thursday night.

“We don’t overlook anybody, but they kind of surprised us with their energy in the first half,” said Rockford coach Blake Hansen, whose team improved to 16-5 for the season and will host the second-round game Tuesday against Bishop Garrigan, which thrashed West Bend-Mallard 62-15 on Thursday.

“Their defense was playing better than our offense,” Hansen said. “Basically, I challenged our girls, asking them ‘You want this to be our last game of the season or not’.”

The Lady Warriors chose “not” and outscored the Bison 36-22 in the latter 16 minutes.

Emma Staudt led all scorers with 16 points, half of which from 8-of-11 shooting at the free-throw line, and also had nine rebounds, five steals and three assists.

Fallon Marth, who was able to work inside of the Bison’s zonr. added 14 points.

Sarah Parcher scored 10, including the only two 3-point field goals of the night for Rockford.

Both teams struggled out of the gate as the score was locked at 2-2 late in the first quarter before Parcher hit the first of her 3-pointers to put Rockford up 5-2 after one.

Rockford gained a little more distance with Staudt’s driving bank making the score 12-5 midway through the second. But Jessica Govern’s 3-pointer gave North Iowa it’s halftime lead before another trey by Dani Yegge gave the Bison their 4-point advantage — their biggest of the evening.

Rockford freshman Morgan Thieman was able to feed Marth twice in the post on consecutive possessions resulting in a made layup and two converted foul shots to help put the Warriors up 24-22 with a minute left in the quarter.

Open-court baskets by Parcher and Staudt, and Parcher’s second 3-pointer put Rockford up 43-32 with 3:37 left in regulation.

In a must-foul situation, North Iowa couldn’t draw any closer as Rockford converted most of its opportunities.

Govern and Kendall Melz each had 7 points for the Bison (4-18).

“I gave them a challenge, and they stood up to it,” Hansen said. “I’m proud of the way they responded.”

Bishop Garrigan (16-6) will likely be a bigger challenge for the Lady Warriors.

“Our offense has got to run much smoother against them, and that’s where we’ve been struggling,” Hansen said. “They’ve got some big girls and we need to finish better down low.”

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