Lady Samsons withstand Stormers

IRONWOOD - No basketball team is a polished product a week after Halloween.

The Gogebic Community College Lady Samsons held on to beat Milwaukee Area Technical College 64-59 Friday night in the Tri State Classic.

The teams combined for 53 fouls and 65 free throws. Neither team, though, made more than half of them. Milwaukee turned it over 36 times, Gogebic 28. Milwaukee shot "better" from the floor at 30.4 percent.

But even though the Lady Samsons missed free throws all night, they made them when counted, going 4 for 4 in the final 22 seconds to make a one-point lead stick. Leading scorer Sam Ofstad (18 points) had 10 turnovers, but she was steady down the stretch.

Gogebic played strong half-court defense and stepped up the intensity after going 1-1 in a season-opening road trip to North Dakota.

A win is a win, especially at this point of the season, where the high schools haven't even started practice yet.

"I thought our girls just battled," Gogebic coach Mark Movrich said. "I was really concerned after last weekend because I thought we played very soft. The girls battled. Physically, this team beat us up last year. The returning players really took it as a challenge and I think that pushed the new girls. I was happy with the intensity."

After taking the lead 14-13, the Lady Samsons never trailed. But that doesn't mean they didn't sweat in the final minutes.

Milwaukee was the more physical team in the very early going, but Gogebic didn't let it stay that away.

"Then I thought our girls realized, 'OK, we're in a street fight' and we answered that," Movrich said. "I think we took it to them."

Gogebic was protecting a 56-52 lead when Ofstad led a 2-on-1 break with teammate Brittni Kisul. Ofstad faked the pass to Kisul, and as the defender bit, she went in for the easy layup to put Gogebic up 58-52.

"I knew that move was coming, I've seen it all too often," Movrich said. "In fact, I even told somebody, 'Here it comes, here it comes.' That's like her go-to move when she's coming up the left side. It was a big bucket for us. It still got a little dicier for us than I wanted it to, but we hung on and that's really all that counts."

Ofstad said, "I fake that pass to get the defender off and then once they know that I do that, that's when I pass. Or I'll do it the other way, where I'll pass first and if they think I'm going to pass, then I'll go up."

Ofstad followed that up with a no-look pass to Kisul, who made the layup for a 60-54 advantage with 2:29 to go.

But Milwaukee scored the next five points, coming within 60-59 with 27.4 seconds left. Milwaukee had a chance to tie, but it only split the free throws. That wasn't surprising considering they shot 13 of 32 from the foul line.

Ofstad went to the free throw line 5.4 seconds later and made them both, putting Gogebic up 62-59.

Milwaukee got three 3-point attempts off and all of them missed. Gogebic's Darian Vinkemeier made two free throws with 1.2 seconds left to put it out of reach at 64-59.

"It seemed like we did everything we could to give them the game, they just didn't take it," Movrich said.

"We won, but we got bailed out a couple times," Ofstad said. "We've got to finish little shots and free throws and I've got to take care of the ball."

Ofstad had 12 points in the first half and all six of her second-half points came in the final five minutes.

"She made some nice passes. She hit some big shots for us. But her ball security needs to be a lot better," Movrich said. "She needs to make the sure pass instead of always trying to make the wow pass."

Kisul scored 15 points and led the Lady Samsons with nine rebounds.

Vinkemeier took two key charges late in the game. She leads the team in that category.

"She's not afraid to get her body in there, which is good," Movrich said. He also recognized the defense and hustle of Jourdan Baldwin, whom he called a difference-maker.

It looked like an early-season game, especially with the high amount of fouls.

"It's early-season. People are a little bit out of shape; it was more reaching than anything," Movrich said. "We've got some things we need to clean up, our ball security we need to clean up, our rotating back on offense to defense. I think when we do that and we get our rotation and the girls get their roles established, we'll be OK."

Gogebic (2-1) plays Madison College at the Lindquist Center today at 2 p.m. to wrap up the Tri State Classic. Madison lost to Anoka-Ramsey 77-70 Friday. Anoka-Ramsey faces Milwaukee today at 10 a.m.

Milwaukee - Ashley Oldenburg 1, Hadeel Abujaber 1, Therese Gaines 15, Briana McKinney 7, DeAndrea Jones 7, Trisha Patton 14, Jasmine Gray 2, Taishae Hunter 10. FTs: 13-32. Fouls: 28. Fouled out: Oldenburg. 3-pointers: Gaines 2, McKinney 1, Jones 1.

Gogebic - Darian Vinkemeier 8, Ale Kohegyi 7, Korrie Trier 4, Jourdan Baldwin 3, Sam Ofstad 18, Sarah Trudgeon 7, Brittni Kisul 15, Tierra Sanders 2. FTs: 16-33. Fouls: 25. Fouled out: Baldwin. 3-pointers: Ofstad 2.

Half: Gogebic 38-29.