WATERTOWN — When the Watertown-Mayer girls basketball fell short against the Annandale Cardinals last Friday night, there was a common disappointed feeling in the locker room. With their first conference loss of the season behind them, the Royals moved on and responded with an impressive 64-55 victory against Glencoe-Silver Lake Tuesday night at home.
“We used that loss as a push in this game,” Grace Knutson said. “We didn’t want that to happen again. We wanted to put what we worked on in practice out there on the court because we didn’t want that feeling again. I think it was a big eye-opener for everybody.”
“It was big for us to regain that confidence,” Monika Czinano said. “I think we learned a lot from the Annandale game. In practice yesterday, we were supposed to get out at 4:30, and we got out at like 5:30. We just kept running through and perfecting things.”
If perfection was what the Royals were looking for, they were pretty darn close. Led by Czinano and Knutson, who both finished with double-doubles, the Royals got back into the thick of things in the race for the Wright County Conference West title with the win.
“We played a nice fist half,” Watertown-Mayer coach John Rosholt said. “I thought we played together. I thought we were communicating well. We were shooting within rhythm. We did a lot of good things in the first half.”
After GS-L’s McKenna Monahan came out on fire, the Royals took over the rest of the half, to take an eight-point lead into the locker room. Monahan opened the game knocking down her first three shots and scoring the first eight points of the game for the Panthers, but the Royals’ defense settled in and made it difficult for one the area’s top players.
“That’s our strategy,” Rosholt said about making Monahan put the ball on the floor and not letting her square up. “If she scores 40 points, and we score 41, that’s still in our favor. I knew at home, we we’re going to comeback on that and figure that out. The girls learned on the floor, and that’s really important.”
After a strong first half, the Royals continued to keep things rolling in the second half. Up by six with Monika Czinano forced to sit on the bench, the Royals didn’t miss a beat. They turned that six-point lead into a 12-point lead, and there was no one loving it more than Monika Czinano on the bench.
“That’s kind of the atmosphere we strive for,” Knutson said about Czinano and her celebrating on the bench. “When Monika is on the bench yelling, it just makes it fun. That’s really what we’re doing out there is having fun and working hard.”
It wasn’t all easy for the Royals, though. Trailing by 14 with just over four minutes to go, the Panthers turned up the pressure and gave it everything they had. A 10-0 run closed the gap to just four, but the Royals calmly slowed things down in the final minutes to hold and secure a big conference win.
“In the second half, I think we got a little apprehensive about things,” Rosholt said. “We let them get back in the game, but we fought off their run. You’re always happy to see that they can fight off the run like that.”
Look for the rest of the story, as well as more HJ sports coverage, in the Friday, Jan. 19 edition of the Herald Journal. Click here for subscription information.
Follow Kip Kovar on Twitter: @Kovar_HJSports