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Brodhead moves ahead of Parkview in conference race

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Photo by Dan Lassiter

Brodhead's Courtney Mielke, left, has the ball knocked out of her hands by Parkview's April Wellnitz while Brodhead's Janae Squires sets a pick.

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Photo by Dan Lassiter

Parkview's Becca Neal fires a pass around Brodhead's Leah Hegi (22) and Kristen Ruchti on Thursday.

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Photo by Dan Lassiter

Brodhead's Kristen Ruchti gets double teamed by Parkview's April Wellnitz, left, and Jenna Larsen on Thursday.

BRODHEAD — Brodhead High’s girls basketball team sleepwalked through the first half of Thursday night’s pivotal Rock Valley South Conference clash with Orfordville Parkview.

But a different Cardinal team took the court in the second half.

Brodhead outscored the visiting Vikings by 19 points in the second half en route to a 55-41 victory.

With the win, Brodhead (13-3, 12-1) moved a game ahead of Parkview (14-3, 11-2) in the Rock South race with three games left, and also avenged an earlier 36-34 overtime loss.

Brodhead coach Chris Medenwaldt said he told his team nothing out of the ordinary during his halftime speech, but the Cardinals sure played inspired ball the second half.

“We didn’t shoot the ball well at all the first half, especially the first quarter where we made one shot,” Medenwaldt said. “I told the girls at halftime that we’ll shoot the ball better in the second half, and fortunately, we did.

“The first half, we made enough stops (defensively) to keep us in the game. And the second half when we finally were able to play with the lead, that gave us a little more energy.”

Parkview led by as many as 11 in the first half before settling for a 22-17 halftime lead.

Brodhead’s Kristen Ruchti, who will play at UW-Parkside next year, picked up her second foul with 2:59 left in the first quarter and sat out the rest of the half.

Despite having one of the two towers out of the lineup for Brodhead—Ruchti and Dana Lewis are both 6-foot-2—Parkview could not take advantage.

“It’s the curse,” Parkview coach Tina Aasen said in jest. “It seems like everytime we play here, everything goes in in the first half, and nothing in the second. And that’s what happened tonight.

“And in the second half we panicked a little bit when we didn’t need to. We forced a couple shots, didn’t get a couple of rebounds we needed, and it kind of went down hill from there.”

Parkview was 13-for-49 shooting for the game, including 3-of-18 in fourth quarter.

After trailing by five at half, Brodhead went on an 18-4 run to start the third quarter. Leah Hegi’s jumper with 3:50 left in the third gave the Cardinals the lead for good at 27-26.

Ruchti capped off a 15-0 run with a three-point play that pushed the lead to 35-26 with 1:35 left in the third. The Vikings got no closer than six the rest of the way.

Lewis led the Cardinals with 12 points but got plenty of support from her teammates. Hegi scored a season-high nine points along with Megan Heller, while Ruchti and Courtney Mielke added eight each.

Sophomore Stephanie Aasen paced the Vikings with nine points.

“Brodhead’s a good ball club, and we knew it was going to be a fight,” coach Aasen said. “My kids played an excellent game, but we couldn’t make enough shots when we had to.

“We played a hard game, and now it’s up to our girls to take care of business for the rest of the (regular) season. We can’t control what Brodhead does.”