Conference title little comfort to Nicolet girls
Team looks to go further in state tournament next year
Nicolet — Knights sophomore guard Brittney Fair recently had surgery to repair a tear in her knee.
Coach Corey Wolf said that Fair is expected to make a full recovery.
What will take longer for the Knights to get over from is the disappointment over how their wildly successful North Shore Conference season came to a crashing halt in a recent WIAA sectional loss to Oak Creek, the game in which Fair suffered her injury.
It was the second consecutive year that Nicolet has lost to Oak Creek and did not sit well with the veteran Knights team that finished with a 20-2 record.
"It's still stinging," said Wolf. "Our goal was to play in state and possibly win it all. The coaches and the players were crushed. It was a hard game to swallow. … In the end, we just didn't make the plays that we had made all year."
Still, Wolf is taking much out of this season. Nicolet ripped off a 19-game winning streak after losing their second game of the year to three-time defending state champion Milwaukee Vincent, which lost in the state semifinals last week to eventual champ Pius XI.
It was Pius that beat Oak Creek in the sectional final the night after it beat Nicolet.
Included in Nicolet's win streak was a highly-touted three-game sweep of national opponents in the KSA Tournament in Florida over the holiday break and a 14-game unbeaten sweep of the North Shore, a feat that included no games decided in the single digits.
The Knights high-pressure, fast-paced attack proved to be too much for most of the teams on their schedule.
"It was a great season," said Wolf. "We improved so much over last season (when the Knights tied for the North Shore title). Even with the bulls-eye on our backs, the kids came out and played their best ball almost every game. It still came down to defense, and we were able to play great defense throughout the season."
Again, as last year, the Knights were an underclassmen dominated team, and for the second straight year, they had only one senior, Sam Lautmann, who missed the Oak Creek game with a shoulder problem.
"She did a great job as a senior leader," Wolf said. "With the dynamics the way they were on this team, she was one who could always lighten the mood. She worked very hard and was very competitive. It was just a shame she had to miss her last game (at sectional) like that."
Next year, however, the look will be much different for the Knights, and the sense of urgency that much greater, as there will be six seniors, including Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association Division 1 first-team all-state selection Ashley Green and teammates Alex Cohen, Amber Thomas, Rachel Travia, Gaby Bronson and Brianna Achs.
"You tell the kids that the (WIAA) tourney is a different animal but sometimes it takes something like this (the Oak Creek game) to learn that lesson," Wolf said. "Only one team (in Division 1) gets to be happy at the end of the season and the others don't feel that great.
"We want to be that one next year."
Season in Review
Knights win second North Shore Conference title in a row
Final record: 20-2 (14-0 in NSC play)
Points for: 54.5
Points against: 37.7
Scoring leaders: Green 351 points (16 points per game), Cohen 225 (10.2 ppg), Fair 219 (10 ppg), Bronson 133 (6 ppg) and Courtney Smith 101 (4.5 ppg)
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