Sports
Central Girls Advance in Playoffs After Double OT Win
Agnello comes up big in overtime as Lancers top West Allis Central in
The Brookfield Central Lancers girls basketball team came through in the clutch against Greater Metro Conference rival West Allis Central in a nail-biting double overtime home victory Saturday afternoon.
During the regular season, the Lancers and Lady Bulldogs each won their respective game on their home court.
The end result in Saturday's Division 1 WIAA regional final was the same, with the Lancers winning 46-37, but getting there was a hard-fought defensive journey.
Find out what's happening in Brookfieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
The two teams were tied at 10 at the end of the first quarter.
The Lady Bulldogs took over in the second quarter and headed into halftime with a 17-12 lead, thanks to stifling defense and 10 points from senior forward Janie Myles.
Find out what's happening in Brookfieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
“We had to guard her (Myles) very well because she was making shot after shot in the first half,” said Brookfield Central head coach Dan Wandrey.
With his team down, Wandrey didn’t have much to say to players at the half. “Just believe in yourself, have confidence in the shots you take and just do your job, is what we told them,” Wandrey said.
At the start of the second half, the Lancers aggressively attacked the boards and made a lot of their shots that were unable to fall in the first half. In a back-and-forth fourth quarter, two of the Lady Bulldogs' top three scorers - junior forward Claire Hankins and Myles - fouled out and left their team shorthanded headed into overtime knotted at 28.
In the first overtime, both teams played great defensively and it ended 35-35. In overtime number two, the Lancers turned on the pressure and put the Lady Bulldogs away, thanks to excellent free-throw shooting by senior forward Valerierose Agnello.
Agnello carried the Lancers with 19 points and racked up virtually all of them in overtime from the charity stripe.
“She made her free throws when she had to and it put us away,” said West Allis Central head coach David Mlachnik.
The Lancers made 24 of their 35 free throws and Wandrey said that was huge for them.
“We’re not even a 60 percent free-throw-shooting team on the season, so doing that well was a huge deal for our team," he said.
In the end, the Lancers got the best of the Lady Bulldogs but Mlachnik is proud of his team. “Just the effort they gave in practice and games all year was great” Mlachnik said.
With the win, the Lancers will play Milwaukee Pius XI, the No. 1 ranked team in Division 1, at 6 p.m. Thursday at Brookfield East.
