An added inch of height makes all the difference in the world on the basketball floor.

Wednesday, December 08, 1999

An added inch of height makes all the difference in the world on the basketball floor.

The Winona Winhawks had that added inch or two of height at every position on the floor. They used it along with their quickness to beat the Packers, 58-46, at Austin High School Tuesday night.

The Winhawks had an octet of players that were all about 5-10 and quick as cats. They used that height and quickness to cause turnovers with their full-court press and to beat Austin’s press.

"We have eight athletic girls," Winona coach Mark Winter said. "They all run well and we pushed the ball up the court all night. After and ugly first quarter it worked well."

It was an ugly first quarter with no team scoring in the first three-and-a-half minutes. Winona then went on a 10-0 run over the next four minutes.

It was Stacy Fisher who finally made a hoop for the Packers, a three pointer from the top of the key. The Packers shot 1-of-11 in the quarter.

Sara Turvey, Jamie Nieland, and Golberg all made hard drives to bucket, but couldn’t get their shots to fall.

"We worked so hard to get our shots and then didn’t finish them off," Austin coach Slone Suess said. "We also had some mental mistakes throwing the ball away trying breaking the press. We had 20 turnovers. We have enough good ball-handlers – that shouldn’t be happening."

The second quarter belonged to Winona junior Sarah Biggerstaff. She scored 10 points in the quarter and 17 for the game on numerous short shots. It didn’t help matters that Austin’s most physical and experienced inside defender, Gina Golberg, picked up her third foul with 3 minutes, 38 seconds left in the half.

Austin had no one to stop Biggerstaff in the quarter.

At the half Winona led 28-16. Austin had just four field goals in the half.

"We knew they could flat out shoot," Winter said. "We focused on not letting them hit the outside shot. We put a lot of pressure on the ball in that first half."

The Winhawks were up 16 by the end of the third quarter 43-27.

Keri Kreuzer had a big second half for the Winhawks. She scored a game-high 23 points, 15 coming in the second half.

Golberg made some hard drives in the second half and was the team leading scorer with a dozen points. Nieland dropped in 11, Turvey seven, Fisher five, Jana Madson and Bridget Burzinski four, and Cummins three. The Packers had a good night at the line going 16-of-20.

The Packers (1-4, 1-1) host Elk River on Friday.