Beaver Dam Classic Top Performers: South Milwaukee vs. Menomonie

<span data-preserver-spaces="true">In the second game on Saturday, South Milwaukee bounced back from a beating by the hands of Prairie du Chein by beating Menomonie 54-47. The players I’m going to highlight aren’t committed to playing college basketball at a school yet. However, I have to mention the game Caitlin Behling had. The William Jewel commit took over the latter stages of the game. That said, these are the uncommitted players who impressed.</span> <strong><span data-preserver-spaces="true">[player_tooltip player_id="347162" first="Helen" last="Chen"]-5’7 G-’22-Menomonie: </span></strong><span data-preserver-spaces="true">Chen was clutch when the Mustangs needed her to be. She knocked down a few 3-pointers, one to give the Mustangs one of their very few leads at 32-31. Chen didn’t start, but she played important minutes that the Mustangs had late in the game. Chen was steady all day. Although the Mustangs lost, Chen left a good impression.</span> <strong><span data-preserver-spaces="true">[player_tooltip player_id="204124" first="Hailey" last="Johnson"]-6’0 F-’22-South Milwaukee: </span></strong><span data-preserver-spaces="true">Johnson was crucial in the first half for the Rockets. She controlled the paint on both ends of the floor, giving Mustangs forwards a hard time in the first half. Johnson did a great job when the Mustangs only had one big on the floor. When the second half came, she wasn’t as impressive because the Mustangs threw three bigs on the floor. There wasn’t much she could do at that time.</span> <strong><span data-preserver-spaces="true">Paige Lathrop-5’9 G/F-’22 South Milwaukee: </span></strong><span data-preserver-spaces="true">Lathrop was interesting because of all the other things she did besides scoring. Lathrop led the Rockets with seven rebounds and added three steals as well. The Rockets also rolled out a small lineup, essentially with Lathrop as the tallest Rocket on the floor. The first stint wasn’t all that great, as they let the Mustangs win that time when the Rockets went small. Even with the poor result at that time, I liked it. With Lathrop rebounding well, even against players taller than her, I think that lineup could cause teams problems.</span> <strong><span data-preserver-spaces="true">[player_tooltip player_id="329537" first="Julia" last="Kennedy"]-5’3 G-’23-South Milwaukee: </span></strong><span data-preserver-spaces="true">When the Mustangs went big, with the shortest player on the floor being [player_tooltip player_id="347162" first="Helen" last="Chen"], I was worried about how Kennedy would manage. I shouldn’t have been surprised that Kennedy held her own. The concern I had was defensively against players a foot taller than her, and she battled, even though they were in a zone. Kennedy didn’t make anything easy on the Mustang bigs when she was the closest defender. With Behling playing well, Kennedy was mainly on the perimeter, which is ok. It helped the Rockets that she was able to make two of her three 3-pointers. To put a cherry on top for Kennedy, she only turned the ball over once all game.</span>