Midgettes win 4th in a row

ASHLAND, Wis. - Hurley has been good at overcoming slow starts.

After losing their first two games, the Midgettes have won four straight. The fourth in that run came Thursday night when they overcame Ashland's early 14-5 lead and went home with a 58-50 non-conference victory.

The Midgettes outrebounded Ashland 49-27 and shot 13 of 15 from the free throw line, including 7 of 8 in the final three minutes.

Hurley didn't let Ashland's early jump get out of hand. After the Oredockers took that nine-point lead, Hurley scored the next seven points with two baskets by Maria Swartz and a 3-pointer by MaKayla Wolfe.

Ashland's Lexi St. Germain made a layup at the quarter buzzer to make it 16-12, but Hurley breathed a whole lot easier going into the second quarter.

"We stemmed the tide, that's for sure," Hurley coach Steve Eder said. "We had to hold our ground there or it was going to be over before halftime. The girls did a fantastic job. They knuckled down, they hit some shots and hung in there. It was a four-point game at the half. We got in the locker room and we said, "'We're right in this, we just have to be a better basketball team than them for 16 minutes.' Fortunately, tonight we were."

The Midgettes took their first lead with 2:34 left in the third quarter, 32-31. Hurley maintained a one-point margin going into the fourth, 34-33.

Ashland never got the lead back, but Hurley wasn't able to pull away.

A basket by Ashland's Alison Huber made it a one-possession game, 47-44, with 2:50 to go.

But Hurley's Gabby Pecotte followed that with a three-point play to get the Hurley advantage back to 50-44. Natalie Moon got to the basket and scored and Kirkie Pecotte made two free throws for a 54-44 Hurley lead with a minute left.

Free throws were huge for Hurley in the close game.

"We worked on that a ton; the girls know how important it is," Eder said. "For them to be able to answer the call when they needed to was outstanding."

Hurley was better in other areas, too, outrebounding the Oredockers and outshooting them. Hurley was 21 of 48 from the field (44 percent) and Ashland was 20 of 62 (32 percent), including 6 of 27 (22 percent) from behind the arc.

"We relied on the 3-pointer probably a little bit too much," Ashland coach Brett Gunderson said. "Early in the year, them shots fell, now the last two games we've been cold shooting. We've just got to get ourselves to be a little more patient on the offensive end. "

Ashland hadn't had problems rebounding the ball much prior to Thursday either. Hurley had a body on a body boxing out for the majority of the second half in a physical game, Eder said.

"We're not a very big team, but neither is Hurley," Gunderson said. "Throughout the year, we've played bigger teams and we've done fairly well rebounding, I don't know what happened tonight, maybe took it for granted? Credit to Hurley, too, because they just kept fighting to the ball. It seemed like they came up with all the loose balls and we didn't get any. They were the better team tonight, no question about it."

Natalie Moon led Hurley with 16 points, Wolfe scored 15 and Gabby Pecotte totaled 11. Moon led Hurley with 12 rebounds.

"I thought they did a good job of being patient," Gunderson said. "They got the ball around, they got the ball to Moon in the post. She did a good job in there, finishing. I was actually pretty impressed with the way she handled herself down there."

Nicole Huber scored 22 points to lead Ashland (2-2). Haley Klobucher scored 15.

Hurley (4-2) hosts Northland Pines tonight for another non-conference game.

Hurley - Gabby Pecotte 11, Natalie Moon 16, Dani Irons 4, Brittany Czarnecki 4, MaKayla Wolfe 15, Maria Swartz 4, Kirkie Pecotte 4. FTs: 12-15. Fouls: 8. Fouled out: None. 3-pointers: Wolfe 3.

Ashland - Haley Klobucher 15, Alison Huber 5, Lexi St. Germain 2, Lucia Agostine 6, Nicole Huber 22. FTs: 4-9. Fouls: 18. Fouled out: None. 3-pointers: Klobucher 5, N. Huber 1.

Ashland 16 24 33 50

Hurley 12 20 34 58