Willamette defense stops Millers

The Springfield Millers girls got off to a rough start in their Midwestern League opener against Willamette on Friday, Jan. 4. Although they played strong defensively they struggled with baskets, suffering a 32-47 loss.
Although the scoring pace was slow, things started out strong for the Millers. The first quarter produced a lot of loose balls, but neither team was able to capitalize much on the turnovers. Both Kenzie Smith and Samantha Stoner came away with steals in the first eight minutes, but the team was only able to score seven points total. Two of those came from Ashlee “Po” Schnetzky, who had a great spin move past the defender to drive the ball in the basket.
“I'm not disappointed with our effort, just a little disappointed with the outcome,” said coach Chuck Wenger. “We didn’t execute nearly as well as we should have offensively. Defensively I thought we did a pretty good job.”
Springfield continued to put on pressure in the second quarter, but they found themselves in serious rebound trouble. Although it only resulted in two points for the Wolverines, the visitors managed over five offensive rebounds on just one play.
Feeling confident having held Willamette to just 23 points at the half, the team focused on their offensive game plan during half time.
“We just have to execute on offensive,” Wenger said. “We’re not a strong rebound team, we’ve got to go the boards harder.”
The Millers opened the second half with another steal by Stoner, but again, they were unable to convert. Springfield, clearly looking tired, closed the gap to eight points with a field goal by Smith. That was the closest they would come all night.
“Probably one of the best things we did was keeping Aly Bruns from going loose,” Wenger said. “Other than free throws, she didn’t do much. Ashlee (Schnetzky) and Lindsey Leighton switched off on her and did a terrific job. Those two just did an outstanding job, basically taking her out of the job.”
Bruns was held to just 10 points.
Throughout the game, the Millers managed to find themselves at the bad end of some poor calls by the officials. Schnetzky was charged with a foul when she was no where near the infraction, and later Willamette didn't get charged when Schnetzky's arm was clearly hit while making a shot. Sabra Lindahl ended up fouling out the fourth quarter after a call many Miller fans felt shouldn't have even been made.
“We let them get to the free throw line way too often,” Wenger said. “Attempt wise it was 31-12. We actually made more field goals in the game than they did, but they were 20-4 at the free throw line.”
Leading the Millers offensively were Smith and Stoner, who had 12 and 7 points, respectively.
“Kenzie really came on and played well in the fourth quarter, particularly offensively,” Wenger said. “We did a better job getting the ball to her. She played well.”
Stoner played hard, Wenger said, despite recovering from a concussion.
“She's not at 100 percent yet, hopefully that will happen this week,” he said.
“I thought it was a good game,” Wenger said. “The kids played with a lot of emotion. This is a group capable of doing very well, we've just got to execute on both ends of the floor.”
The Millers hosted the Thurston Colts on Tuesday, Jan. 8. A game story will appear in next weeks edition.
Their next game will be Friday, Jan. 11 at Churchill High School. Game time is set for 6 p.m.