Dashers dethone Knights

Balance helps team earn first trip to state since ’06

Special to the Journal Sentinel

— Divine Savior Holy Angels knew the path to the WIAA state girls basketball tournament was to establish a strong inside game against defending state champion Oak Creek on Saturday afternoon.

It took longer than the Dashers hoped to take control, but once Arike Ogunbowale and Taylor Drost got going there was little the Knights could do to stop them.

Drost and Ogunbowale each scored15 points — most of them coming in the paint on jumpers or drives

Brookfield to the basket — as the Dashers grinded their way to a 48-35 victory in a Division 1 sectional final at Brookfield Central.

The victory sends DSHA to the state tournament for the first time since 2006. The Dashers (24-2) open against Middleton (22-4) in a semifinal at 6:35 p.m. Friday at the Resch Center in Ashwaubenon.

“We were in it at half, we just couldn’t hit our shots today,” said Oak Creek coach Steve Hluchnik, whose team finished 21-5. “We did a pretty good job on Arike all day. Our goal was to hold them to 45 (points) and we got around that. We just couldn’t put the ball in the hole.”

Oak Creek defenders hounded Ogunbowale, a Notre Dame recruit who averages 26.6 points a game, with two or three defenders every time she touched the ball. She finished with a season-low point total on 6-for-15 shooting. But her mere presence — and the attention she gets from opposing defenses — provided scoring chances for Drost and junior Megan Misiewicz, whose many hard drives to the basket produced nine points, including a 7-for-7 performance from the free-throw line.

“She opens up so many opportunities for her teammates when she drives to the basket,” Drost said of Ogunbowale. “It’s just a blessing to play with her. She can take someone off the dribble, she can shoot the three, and she’s just overall a great player.

“We wanted to spread it out because we knew so much attention would be on Arike, and when I got in the high post nobody was in the help position, so I was able to take my girl one-on-one to the basket.”

During a season of receiving the extra attention from opposing defenses, Ogunbowale has complete confidence in her teammates to pick up the slack.

“It’s a plus for us if teams throw two or three defenders on me, because my teammates will knock down the shots,” she said.

Senior Hannah Settingsgaard tried to rally Oak Creek in the fourth quarter, scoring nine of her gamehigh 18 points and making two of her five three-point shots.

But with the Knights in fouling mode to stop the clock and trying to climb back in the game, the Dashers never gave them a chance, making 11 of 15 down the stretch.