East Butler girls face Howells at State
Wednesday, March 3, 2010 - 5:55 pm
By Kreig Ritter
Banner-Press Sports Editor
East Butler Coach Gerry Reinsch didn't have to go very far to start looking at film of the team's first round opponent at the Class D-1 State Tournament.
The Tigers (20-3), ranked second in Class D-1 will play fifth-ranked Howells (15-7) at 10:45 a.m.Thursday at Lincoln Northstar High School.
The two teams met Dec. 29 in the first round of the Howells Holiday Tournament. The Bobcats captured a 60-51 victory.
"We didn't play our best game against them," Reinsch said. "We had the five-day moratorium where we couldn't practice, then we got pushed back an extra day because of the weather. We had a ton of turnovers and missed a ton of easy shots that game, so we know we can play better."
The Tigers are back at state after a one-year absence. They lost in the first round of the Class C-2 tournament to Perkins County in 2007 and West Point Central Catholic in 2008 before losing to eventual runner-up Aquinas in a subdistrict final last year.
East Butler dropped to Class D-1 this year. The team is feeling confident heading into the tournament.
"We probably had as good a draw as we could ask for," Reinsch said. "We only have three losses. Two of them are against the top seed in Class C-2, Elmwood Murdock, who's undefeated. Our other one's against Howells, so we get another chance against them."
The Bobcats, meanwhile, are glad to be Lincoln after eight nervous days of waiting.
They lost 56-41 to fourth-ranked Humphrey in the Subdistrict D1-7 final. They could only afford one upset of a higher seed. While that happened with Brady's win over Stapleton-McPherson County in District D1-6, none of the other high seeds lost. Howells was in with the last spot.
The Bobcats did show off some of their strengths in that earlier victory over the Tigers.
They boast a deep playing rotation with Scott Polacek bringing five or six subs off the bench in the first quarter.
"He'll sub three girls at a time, so we'll have to be aware of who comes in and out and be ready to account for those players on both ends of the floor," Reinsch said.
East Butler's own depth has been tested by the season-ending knee injury to senior Brittany Karber. She was leading the team in rebounds and assists when she was injured in the last 30 seconds of the team's loss to Class C-2 No. 1 Elmwood-Murdock in the finals of the ECNC Tournament.
"It wound be nice to have Britney, no question. I feel bad for her. She worked hard and was having a good season. I know she'd love to be out there," Reinsch said.
It wasn't the first injury that the Tigers have had to deal with. Senior starter Kylee Sisel missed five January games with a knee injury. Junior guard Lindsay Dobesh, one of the team's regular reserves, missed 10 games with a foot injury, playing for the first time in over a month in the district final.
"We've had to have other girls step up and pick up the slack," Reinsch said. "It hurt not having those girls, but that got some other girls more playing time to develop. We've got a lot of girls with big game experience now. Hopefully, that's a plus."
While a lot of Bobcats are likely to see the floor at North Star, their offense goes through the Janata sisters - 5'10" senior Kourtney and 5'10" sophomore Kaitlyn. The elder Janata averaged 13.5 points and 5.7 rebounds per game. The younger one averages 8.6 points and 5.5 rebounds per contest.
"We've got to guard the Janata girls. They really attack the basket well. We'll have to be ready for that," Reinsch said.
While Howells' perimeter shooting hasn't always been consistent, it is always dangerous. Just ask the Tigers, who saw the Bobcats go 6-of-9 from three-point range in that December defeat.
"They've got three good outside shooters who we'll have to account for. (Heather) Kampschneider will take shots five or six feet behind the line, she's not bashful," Reinsch said.
Reinsch credited the work of the team's four seniors - Bongers (the leading scorer in school history), Sisel, Chelsea Komenda and Karber.
"After last year's subdistrict loss, they pretty much got together and decided that they were going to do whatever it took to make sure that didn't happen again. They played a lot of basketball in the summer and they're reaping the rewards of that hard work now."
For the Tigers to get beyond the first round, they'll have to do what's gotten them to this point, things they didn't always do the first time.
"We have to limit our turnovers. We'll have to use all of our defenses against them and try to force them into more mistakes. We have to get good defense inside, but can't let them get open threes. And rebounding is definitely big. That's one thing we did do well the first time was rebound. We're going to have to do that again," Reinsch said.
