Post Messenger Recorder -

On Tuesday, January 25th, the Wildcats welcomed the Division 3 Dodgeville Dodgers for a non-conference match up. Belleville came out with smothering defense from the start and great energy from all players and built a 34-14 lead by halftime.

Coach Tony Pharo said, "We made little adjustments at halftime, but just worked to keep the intensity up in the second half."

This great defense allowed the Wildcats to walk away with an impressive 64-36 victory over the Dodgers.

Belleville was led by a very balanced attack, which saw four players score double figures and were led by Ava Foley's 14 points, 13 rebounds, 4 assists and 1 steal, Callie Smith's 13 points, 11 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal and 3 blocks, and Maddi DeSmet's and Alyssa Caskey's 11 points each for the Wildcats.

Then, on Friday, January 28th, Belleville traveled to New Glarus to take on the Glarner Knights. There was a lot of great energy in the gym on this night and excellent support from each fan base. Coach Tony Pharo stated that he was very appreciative to see the support for the girl's game and wanted to also thank 93.7 for broadcasting this game.

Sue Moen

Ava Foley goes up for a score early in the Wildcats game against New Glarus.

There were several reasons why this was such a big basketball game. Of course, it is the Hwy 69 rival game, it had important conference standing implications, and was an extremely important game for play-off seeding. Both teams came out with a lot of energy, but it was Belleville's defense which allowed them to build a 33-26 halftime lead. The second half saw Belleville come out with even more intensified energy and build a 17-point lead over the Knights. On the bucket for this 17-point lead it saw senior Ava Foley record her 1,000-point career milestone reached, which saw the game stopped for a few minutes to acknowledge her great accomplishment. During this break in action the Knights took the time to regroup and come up with a plan that allowed them to chip away at the lead and with 59.5 seconds to go the game was tied 61-61. In the final seconds of the game, the Wildcats seemed to increase their defensive intensity, especially on the rebounding end, and saw senior Alyssa Caskey step up and hit 3 out of 4 free throws and allow the Wildcats to walk away with a hard fought 64-61 win.

The Wildcats were led by Ava Foley's 19 points, 6 rebounds, 1 assist and 4 steals, Callie Smith's 16 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 4 blocks and 2 steals, and Mickey Stampfl's 13 points, 9 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 steals.

Lindsey Schadewalt led New Glarus with 27 points and was 4-4 from the free throw line, while Peyton Yaun scored 9 points and Isabella Brenkman and Elle Lancaster each scored 6 points.

With this big win, the Belleville Wildcats stay both undefeated in conference and now take a two-game lead in the Capital South.

This week Belleville is back in action with two home games. They welcomed Deerfield on Tuesday, February 1st, which is also Parent's Night for the Wildcats, and Cambridge on Thursday, February 3rd.