LOMIRA – The Lomira girls basketball team finds itself in a spot it hasn’t been since the 2011-12 season – sectionals.
“Having such a high since just being regional champs, that hasn’t happened in 14 years. So that’s even unbelievable which makes this season and all of our hard work 10 times better,” Lomira senior Olivia Marshall said.
To get to this point Lomira had a first-round bye then beat Winnebago Lutheran 54-37 and beat Howards Grove 60-46 in the regional final. Now Lomira, the No. 3 seed in the Division 4, Sectional 4A, will play No. 1 seed Kohler. The game is at 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 5, at Chilton High School.
Lomira head coach Liz Cook is in her fifth year at the helm and previously spent five years at Mayville.
“I’ve never coached beyond a regional so I’ve gotten some advice from other coaches. My high school coach gave me some advice today. But we’re going to keep the routine normal,” Cook said.
The Lions are 20-6 on the season and finished second in the Flyway Conference to Laconia who ended the year with an undefeated conference record. Their roster has three seniors, three juniors and four sophomores.
The group meshes together well as many of the girls have played other sports together.
“You put these girls in front of you, you couldn’t tell what grade anybody is in because there are days where some of my seniors are acting like freshman and they’re being goofy and some days where my younger ones are acting like, ‘Oh my gosh, you guys are feeling like seniors,’” Cook said. “I’ve been with them for so much, that sometimes I forget their ages because they gel so well.”
Lomira’s top three scorers are all sophomores. At the top of the list is Josie Christian who’s averaging 25.8 points per game, 7.2 rebounds per game, 5.3 steals per game and 3.7 assists per game through the game against Winnebago Lutheran. She has a season high of 39 points and scored 30 or more points in seven games. As a freshman she averaged 22.8 points per game.
“She’s really stepped it up this year. Last year she scored a lot, but this year she’s scoring a lot, but then she’s also doing everything else too. She’s rebounding for us, she’s getting her teammates involved and I think that is another thing that’s really propelled us,” Cook said.
In just two seasons and at least one more game to play, Christian has surpassed 1,000 career points and is Lomira girls basketball all-time leading scorer.
“It’s pretty cool to have that accomplishment as a sophomore but what’s even better is I get to do it with my teammates and they helped me a lot to get to where I am,” Christian said.
But game-to-game it’s not just a one-girl show. Kennedy Goebel is averaging 9.5 points per game and Lily Christian is averaging eight points per game. In the playoffs everyone is important and Lily Christian provided a spark off the bench in Lomira’s win over Winnebago Lutheran as she went 4-for-7 from 3-point range and scored 16 points.
“That was something we preached at the beginning of the year. We can’t be a Josie show. It has to be all of us, at least attempting,” Cook said. “Just instilling the confidence in all of them and I think Josie has done a good job of that too. In games where she sees an open player she’s throwing it to them, she’s cheering them on.”
On top of the offense that Lomira has, its defense causes chaos.
“We ran a 2-3 zone against WLA and I only threw that in about a month ago just to change things up but they have absolutely taken it and flown with it,” Cook said. “The bigger thing with defense is rebounding and I think that’s what’s really helped us these last few games is that we know that we’re not the tallest team in the world so we have to box out and go get the ball. I always tell them, ‘If we can’t play defense and get a stop then we don’t get to go have fun on offense.’”
With a win on Thursday, Lomira would move one win away from the state tournament. If it advances, it’ll play the winner of No. 1 seed Dominican vs. No. 2 seed Kenosha St. Joseph Catholic. The game will be at 7 p.m., Saturday, March 7, at Germantown High School.
“I think it would be really exciting,” Lomira junior Jadalee Luedtke said. “I think this is the team that deserves to do that and I feel like we’re all ready to just keep moving forward.”
Contact or send game stats/info to Ben Schultz at BSchultz@usatodayco.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @benschultz52.
This article originally appeared on Oshkosh Northwestern: Lomira girls basketball set for first sectional appearance in 14 years
Reporting by Ben Schultz, Oshkosh Northwestern / Oshkosh Northwestern
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
