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West topples cold-shooting Parker girls

MADISON — There are off nights.

And then there are nights like the Janesville Parker High School’s girls basketball team experienced Tuesday night.

Parker misfired on 52 of 66 field-goal attempts, including 22 of 24 from three-point range, in a frustrating 41-35 Big Eight Conference loss to Madison West.

The Vikings (9-4, 8-3) could do little right in losing for the second time this season to the Regents (9-5, 9-3), and more importantly, seeing any hopes of successfully defending their conference title begin to fade. Parker fell two games behind streaking Middleton with five games left.

“There really isn’t much to talk about,” a dejected Tom Klawitter said afterward. “We just can’t play like that and expect to win.

“Obviously, we didn’t shoot the ball well. And on a couple of key posessions where we needed a stop, we didn’t get it. It’s frustrating because I thought we were ready to play tonight.”

As poorly as the Vikings shot, they actually led 26-22 with 1:24 left in the third quarter after Danielle Flood made a three-pointer. The Regents responded with a 7-0 run to end the third quarter and pushed the lead to as many as eight in the fourth. Parker got within six on two Flood free throws with 1:25 to play, but five missed free throws in the fourth sealed Parker’s fate.

Parker’s Catie O’Leary, the two-time Big Eight Player of the Year, was held to a season-low seven points, 16 below her season average.

West coach Lester Luehring said bottling up O’Leary was more good luck than anything else.

“O’Leary’s such a great player that you come in with a game plan where you hope she has an off night, and that’s what happened tonight,” Luehring said. “We gave her a lot of attention, and were able to help out on her defensively, but her shot just wasn’t falling for her tonight.

“It was a very physical game, and I thought, one that was officiated very tight. That didn’t allow either team to get into any kind of flow.

“But we’re very happy with beating Parker twice in the same year. We haven’t been able to say that around here in a long time.”

Parker was a woeful 3-for-16 shooting in the first quarter but somehow managed to stay even at 8-8 thanks to seven West turnovers. The second quarter was even worse for Parker as it misfired on 18 of 20 shots in scoring just four points.

Fortunately the Vikings, their defense limited West to six points as the Regents led 14-12 at halftime.

“We knew what the problem was at half, and that was we weren’t shooting the ball well,” Klawitter said.

“The first couple minutes of the second half were crucial. And they came out and got a couple baskets, and that had us playing from behind right away. It was just one of those nights.”

Flood was the only player to reach double figures for Parker. The sophomore finished with 13 points, while West’s Ellie Pearson led all scorers with 15.

Parker hosts second-place Verona on Friday night.

WEST 41, PARKER 35

Parker (35)—O’Leary, 3-1-7; Shepler, 3-0-7; Flood, 5-1-13; McDonald, 0-2-2; Zinn, 1-0-2; Miland, 1-0-2; Pernot, 1-0-2. Totals: 14-5-35.

West (41)—Pearson, 6-3-15; Poffenberger, 4-1-9; Heller, 1-4-6; Christianson, 2-0-5; Cox, 1-0-2; Sieben, 1-2-4; Totals: 15-10-41.

Janesville Parker 8 4 14 9—35

Madison West 8 6 15 12—41

Three-point goals—Parker 2 (Flood, Shepler), West 1 (Christianson). Free throws missed—Parker 5, West 5. Total fouls—Parker 18, West 18. Fouled out—Christianson.

Sophomores: Parker 40, West 35. Parker is 5-6 overall and 5-6 in the Big Eight. Parker leading scorer: Julia Dement, 10.