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Shot of the tournament not enough as Regis hangs on to state semifinal OT victory

Westby senior Jenna Engh did about all she could to keep Westby’s hopes for a state championship alive. Unfortunately for her Norse squad, Westby just couldn’t find the answers in the extra session, dropping an exciting  57-51 overtime Division 4 state semifinal to top-ranked Regis.

Down 49-46, Westby’s wild three attempt was tipped out of bounds as time expired—or so the Regis bench thought. The referees agreed to put 0.4 seconds back on the clock, and that’s all Engh needed.

Racing off a couple screens, Engh caught the ball and launched a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from the baseline to send the game into overtime.

“I was just thinking catch and shoot it, and it went in,” Engh said after the game.

On Westby’s previous possession, Engh had a chance to tie the game from the free-throw line after getting fouled on a rebound off a missed Heather Bowe free throw. Yet in true gamer fashion, Engh redeemed herself in an incredibly clutch way.

“It made me feel better about missing those two free throws,” Engh said. “I knew I had to keep my head held high.”

The shot heard ‘round the Kohl was no match for the focus and drive of Regis in the overtime period though, as the Ramblers jumped out on a 6-0 run and never looked back. Regis and Bowe took full advantage of their size inside as Westby had troubles keeping Ramblers off the offensive glass.  

“We were undersized and that affected us down the stretch,” Westby head coach Brian Huebner said. “We haven’t seen size like that all season and I think we were a little intimidated.“

Bowe was nearly unstoppable for Regis inside, scoring a game-high 27 points and 14 rebounds—eight of which came on the offensive end of the floor. But perhaps the most underrated part of the University of Wisconsin recruit’s game was her defense, which shut down Westby sophomore Abby Midtlien in the second half. Midtlien had scored 13 points in the first half to lead Westby into the locker room at the half.

“Abby had an excellent start,” Huebner said. “They moved Bowe on her, and she is a tremendous defender on the open floor. She tipped a lot of passes and contained her for much of the second half.”

“[Midtlien] got in the weakness of our zone and knocked down some shots,” Regis coach Brady Hoolihan said. “She took us out of our zone. We came to the sideline and I told Heather ‘she’s yours’. We really locked down in our man.”

In the waning seconds of the game, Westby’s main inside presence, junior Maggi Bishop, picked up her fifth foul to try and create some more offensive possessions.

“That hurt,” Huebner said. “We’ve been blessed with our bench all season and I thought Fortun and Katelyn manned the position well versus their size, but it kind of took the wind out of our sails.”

But for the pretty heavy underdogs heading into the matchup, Coach Huebner was pleased with his team’s overall performance.

“To put it into overtime against an opponent like that is great. You just never know if you’ll get an athlete like [Engh] or what will happen to the athletes you have.”

The final stats don’t lie—Regis finished with 18 offensive rebounds and 19 second chance points. Engh led the Norse with 16 points and Midtlien added 15.

Regis will move on to take on Algoma in Saturday afternoon’s Division 4 final game.

Algoma disposes of Dutch in second semifinal

Algoma’s scoring duties have been via platoon all season long, and at Thursday’s state semifinal game, it was much the same story. Behind a balanced attack yet again, Algoma cruised to a 58-36 win against Oostburg to earn the right to play Regis in the Division 4 final.

The Wolves and Dutch traded baskets for much of the first quarter before Algoma used an 8-0 run in the second to jump out to a 26-14 lead. Oostburg never really mounted any other threat the rest of the game.

Junior forward Karissa LeCaptain led with game-highs with 16 points and eight rebounds. Classmate Abbey Bluett added 12 points and sophomore Taylor Schmidt finished with nine points. Oostburg got nine points apiece from senior Alli VanStelle and freshman Maranda Huibregtse.

Algoma will take on Regis in the Division 4 state championship game Saturday at approximately 12:45 p.m.