The De Pere Redbirds dug themselves a hole in the first half, climbed out of it, but fell into a bigger one to start the second half and couldn’t escape, losing to top seeded Kettle Moraine 66-47 in the Division 1 semifinals at the Resch Center Friday night.
The Lasers got out to a 13-0 lead. De Pere’s first basket came from McKenna Ciesielczyk with 10:16 left in the half. They rallied back to within 24-22 but Kettle Moraine took a 28-23 lead into halftime.
The Lasers hit their first four three point attempts in the second half and the lead grew to 44-28 and De Pere never recovered. They would finish 8 of 16 from beyond the arc and had four of their five starters hit double figures. Lily Randgaard led the way with 17 (3 of 3 on 3’s), Braelyn Torres had 15 and Grace Grocholski had a double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds.
Senior Jordan Meulemans finished with a game high 20 points for De Pere, denied an opportunity to play for a 4th state title in school history. De Pere had a tough shooting game from everywhere, hitting just 37.5% from the floor, 4 of 19 (21%) from three and only 7 of 15 (46.7%) from the free throw line.
Kettle Moraine improves to 26-3 and can win it’s second state title, the first coming in 1999. De Pere finishes 24-4.
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