Disruptive play is key in Carlton win over Wrens

A full-court trapping defense by the Carlton girls basketball team proved to be too much for the Wrenshall Wrens to handle last Thursday as the Bulldogs pulled away to an impressive 57-33 win.

"We started the game in a full-court zone trap that worked pretty well," said Carlton coach Lucas Beireis. "Our goal with that is to just change the pace of the game and get our opponents to play at a pace they are not comfortable with."

Carlton's Alaina Bennett caused the most damage against the Wrens by scoring 25 points and generally being a disruptive influence the entire game.

"Bennett played very well; she got a bunch of transition points from her aggressive defense," said Beireis. "She did a great job at reading passing lanes along with having quick hands and getting some steals."

While Bennett was leading the Bulldogs, it was Hailey Tauzell doing her best to keep the Wrens in the game by scoring a team-high 15 points.

"As a sophomore, she is the leader of our offense," said Wrens coach Sheri Nelson. "She is quick and able to see the whole court and she is focused and positive and helps our team offensively whether she is hitting a jump shot, a layup or passing to an open teammate."

The Bulldogs cruised out quickly to a 32-16 halftime lead, doubling up on the Wrens as their trapping defense created multiple scoring chances.

"Carlton was able to get a few steals on their press and quick layups," Nelson said. "We had shots that weren't falling and we had too many missed opportunities to close the gap on the scoreboard. They had second and third chances on the offensive boards and rebounding was a bit of a crux for us."

Brynne Mickle also was in double-digit scoring with 10 points for Carlton. Jordan Hyry added seven for Carlton; it was four each for Abby Mickle and Isabella Anderson, three for Alena Wallin and two each for Elizabeth Hey and Nicole Nilsen.

"I'm happy that we won, but I know we have a lot of work yet," Beireis said. "We really didn't play hard for both halves. It was a quiet atmosphere after we got out to a lead and we lost our energy. As a team, we need to find a way to create our own energy and keep playing with intensity. Once we got the lead we started getting lazy with passes and we stopped moving the ball quickly against their 2-3 zone. We backed out of our full-court press for a time and that was my fault because we lost some energy."

Chipping in on the scoring for Wrenshall were Taylor Bryce with six points, April Lattu and Alexis Perry with three points each. Haley Patritto and Samantha Nyberg scored two each, while both Hannah Lattu and Janae Sjodin each finished with a point.

The Wrens, who are now 1-3 on the season, would also like to see some improvement.

"One of my main focus points for us as a team to improve is team defense and rebounding," suggested Nelson. "We need to be better about closing out, communicating and boxing out to get rebounds."

On Monday night the Bulldogs added another "W" to the win column by knocking off Cook County 55-49 at home with junior guard Kaylee Asleson leading the scoring parade with 18 points.