South Shore gets knocked out of state tournament

The season came to an end for the South Shore Cardinals with a 54-45 loss to the Barneveld Soaring Eagles in the WIAA Girls State Basketball Tournament Thursday afternoon at the Resch Center in Green Bay.

While the Cardinals’ season ends with a 26-1 record, the Eagles will take a record of 27-1 into Saturday’s Division 5 championship game against Wisconsin Rapids Assumption (27-1). Barneveld’s only loss this season was to Assumption.

Sophomore Megan Gustafson led South Shore with 26 points and 10 rebounds. Sister Emily Gustafson, a senior, finished with eight points and set a D-5 state tournament record with 17 rebounds. Janice Anderson also had nine points and Alyssa Kavajecz had two.

Rachel Slaney led the Eagles with 15 points and 12 rebounds. Hannah Whitish added 11 points and Madi Laube had 10.

South Shore scored the first four points of the game, but Barneveld took the lead for good with the next 11 points.

The Soaring Eagles eventually led 15-10 after the first quarter then doubled its lead to lead by 29-19 at the half.

Barneveld thrived from the 3-point line in the first half, making 5-of-11 attempts.

A layup by Megan Gustafson got the Cardinals within 19-15 with 5:55 left in the second quarter, but the Eagles finished with a 5-2 run for the 10-point lead at the intermission.

South Shore trailed by as many as 15 points in the third quarter, before Megan Gustafson, completed a 3-point play to make it a 40-33 game with 2:28 on the clock.

Another basket by Megan Gustafson, who scored 16 of the Cardinals’ 18 points in the third quarter, made it a 42-37 game heading into the fourth quarter.

Neither team scored for the first two minutes of the fourth quarter until Barneveld got a put-back basket to teak a 44-37 lead.

McKenzie Sporle’s 3-point gave Barneveld a 50-41 lead with 3:30 remaining.

Anderson made two free throws and Kavajecz made a bucket for a 50-45 game, but Barneveld was able to score the final four points of the game for the 54-45 win and a berth in Saturday’s championship game.

CARDINAL CLIPS: South Shore turned the ball over 22 times, including 12 times in the first half. … Barneveld only had nine turnovers. … The Eagles made 6-of-19 3-pointers, compared to 1-of-7 for the Cardinals.

Barneveld 15-14-13-12—54

South Shore 10-9-18-8—45

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