Speedgirls surprise W-M

By JASON JUNO

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Ironwood --- Bessemer took advantage of the defensive attention given to standout Brooke Stanislawski. They went inside and pulled the upset of rival Wakefield-Marenisco.

After losing to the Cardinals by double digits twice since Feb. 15, the Speedgirls won the most important game, Monday's MHSAA Division 4 District 97 opener, 61-50.

"Our schedule did not help us," W-M coach Alex Metas said. "It's hard to beat a good team three times in a season, let alone in 2.5 weeks."

Things were certainly different in the third and final matchup.

Bessemer handled W-M's press well enough. Coach Jordy Chiapuzio thought they had an advantage inside against the Cardinals. It didn't work out the first two times - their inside players combined for seven points in last week's game - but it was the difference Monday night. Audrey Stone, their sophomore big, led the Speedgirls with 27 points and 22 rebounds, and Maddie Guglielmotto had eight boards.

"Our post players are still a work in progress, and tonight I feel like both of them played their best all-around game," Chiapuzio said.

W-M started with a box-and-one on Stanislawski, who they have defended pretty well in their three matchups this season. But it leaves them vulnerable to scoring inside, Metas said. So does foul trouble for their own big, Noelle Grace, which started in the first half. She fouled out early in the fourth quarter.

"As soon as Noelle gets into a little foul trouble, then she pulls back and she's not able to be as aggressive. In the first half, she was pretty much just shooting over Noelle," Metas said. "The Stone girl, I give her all the credit in the world, she had a beautiful game, she dominated inside.

"Once we lose Noelle, we are short. When you are able to roll out two bigs, and you actually play old-school basketball by pounding it in, which Bessemer did tonight, pounding it in will get a team a long way when you have two bigs."

Stone was in foul trouble, too. After 11 points in the first quarter, she picked up her third foul with over five minutes left in the second quarter. Chiapuzio left her in the game. The gamble paid off, she didn't commit her fourth until late in the game, and she scored 16 more points, 12 of them in the second half.

The Speedgirls led 29-25 at halftime.

"There's certain girls I feel we need on the court to remain competitive, especially against an opponent like Wakefield," Chiapuzio said. "In order to remain competitive where we still have certain advantages, Audrey's a part of that equation. I told Audrey, 'Be careful, you're not coming out of the game.' She did a good job of still contesting shots and keep her body off the other players and she turned the game around nicely."

Bessemer took a 43-36 lead early in the fourth, but W-M charged back to tie it at 49 midway through. W-M took the lead 50-49 with 1:41 left when Emily Delfavero made a free throw. She scored five straight herself to put W-M in front.

Stanislawski, who scored 12 of her 14 in the second half, put Bessemer back in the lead. She was fouled bringing the ball up the court and she made both to make it 51-50 with 1:36 remaining.

A Stone putback made it 53-50. W-M missed and Stone made a quick layup for a five-point lead. The Cards missed again and Guglielmotto got a layup this time for a seven-point lead and that was pretty much it for the Cardinals.

Stone and Guglielmotto were pivotal on that game-deciding run, and the whole game.

"They were tough, they battled for position, they got a lot of contested shots off and were fortunate to knock enough down, get to the free throw line, make some free throws and put ourselves in a opportunity to win the game," Chiapuzio said. "We did a really good job at getting the ball to them girls tonight."

W-M's press had success but not near the impact it had before against the Speedgirls and several other opponents this year.

"Those girls are crazy aggressive going after passes, on ball defense," Chiapuzio said. "We kept our head up, we had a plan to break it and we did a good job not only breaking it, but we turned some of them into points. That's a big thing if a team's pressing you, we need to look at it as we need to take advantage, we need to look to score on that and I feel we did a pretty good job of doing that tonight."

Delfavero led W-M with 20 points and Carine Cole and Kenly Anderson both had 12.

Bessemer improved to 8-15 and W-M finished the season at 14-8.

"It's a hard loss for the girls, they're sophomores," Metas said. "They took it really hard. The plus is I think we'll work even harder now in the offseason and I do believe we'll come back even stronger next year."

Bessemer was to play host Ironwood Wednesday night in a district semifinal. The final is Friday night at 7 p.m.

W-M --- Emily Delfavero 20, Carine Cole 12, Kenly Anderson 12, Emma Choronzy 6. FTs: 5-13. Fouls: 20. Fouled out: Choronzy, Anderson, Noelle Grace. 3-pointers: Cole 2, Delfavero 1.

Bessemer --- Keira Graham 3, Kaedyn Hendrickson 9, Brooke Stanislawski 14, Maddie Guglielmotto 8, Audrey Stone 27. FTs: 13-25. Fouls: 14. Fouled out: None. 3-pointers: Stanislawski 2, Hendrickson 1, Graham 1.

W-M 14 25 36 50

Bessemer 16 29 40 61