Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

WEST BRANCH – West Branch tried a little bit of everything in an attempt to slow Emily Lange and her Wilton teammates on Tuesday night.

None of those attempts were all that successful.

Lange poured in a game-high 29 points to lead three players in double figures as Wilton held off West Branch 76-74 in a wild, back-and-forth River Valley Conference South Division tilt in West Branch.

“We tried a lot of different things but we had a hard time matching up with them,” West Branch freshman Sasha Koenig said. “Emily Lange can play all over the place so it’s tough to match up with her and when we went to a 3-2 she shot the ball well so it was just tough.”

Kortney Drake had 19 points and Aubrey Putman added 14 as Wilton (2-0) shot 51 percent from the field and attempted 34 free throws, outscoring West Branch 20-4 at the charity stripe.  

The 76 points were the most allowed by a West Branch team since Davenport Assumption scored 80 on November 29 2011.  

“Defensively we are better than that,” West Branch coach Jarod Tylee said. “When you spend over half of your practice working defensively on stuff and come out and give up 76 points that is too much. That is the end we have to work on.”

Despite its defensive struggles West Branch still had a chance to win on Tuesday.

Tatum Koenig had a team-high 23 points to lead four Bears in double figures but her last second 3-point attempt was blocked

West Branch has averaged 78 points in two games but is 1-1 on the season following Tuesday’s loss.

“Obviously, we don’t have a problem scoring points at this point,” Tylee said. “We have people that can score but we have to start getting stops.”

The 5-foot-10 Lange was the catalyst for the Wilton offensive explosion, hitting 10-of-18 field goals including 6-of-9 from 3-point range.

She had 20 of her game-high 29 in the first half as Wilton took a 33-26 halftime lead.

Coach told us to get on their shooters and we struggled to do that,” West Banch sophomore Taylor Thein said. “They were getting fast break points on us so we need to do better in stopping that.”

The Bears needed less than a minute of the third quarter to pull even.

Tatum Koenig opened the half with back-to-back baskets and fed sister Sasha Koenig for a conventional 3-point play following a steal that tied the score at 33 with 7:01 left in the third quarter.

The game was back-and-forth from that point on.

West Branch led 69-67 following a driving layup by Tatum Koenig with 2:31 left but Wilton scored the next six points on a basket by Lange and four straight free throws and never trailed again.  

“It all goes back to the defensive end, we have to find a way to get stops,” Tylee said. “The credit is to them, they are a good team.”

Tatum Koenig gave West Branch life with a deep 3-pointer that cut the lead to 75-74 with seven seconds left.

After Drake hit 1-of-2 free throws Koenig had a potential game-winning 3-pointer blocked at the buzzer.

With West Branch focused on slowing Lange after halftime Drake and Putman combined for 26 points in the final two quarter.

Drake had 17 of her 19 in the second half.

“They have three good players and we let those three beat us,” Tylee said. “It’s something that we have to focus in on and not let happen again.”

West Branch had plenty of its own offensive highlights.

Sasha Koenig had 15 points while Thein was 4-of-5 from 3-point range and had 14 points off the bench.

Sophomore Mackenzie Heise hit all five of her field goal attempts and finished with 10 points before fouling out.

“We had a lot of girls step up and hit shots,” Sasha Koenig said. “We had some girls come off the bench and play well.”

West Branch shot 45 percent from the field but was just 4-of-10 from the free throw line and committed 17 turnovers, 13 of which came in the opening half.

“We didn’t shoot horribly it was just simple things,” Thein said. “The turnovers in the first half really hurt us and we need to play better defense.”

West Branch              17   9   28  20  –  74

Wilton                        15  18  18  25  –  76

West Branch (74) – Abbey Fryauf 1-2 0-0 2, Riley Vaughan 1-5 0-0 2, Tatum Koenig 10-23 1-1 23, Bridget Buol 0-2 0-0 0, Taylor Thein 5-8 0-1 14, Taya Young 3-8 1-4 8, Sasha Koenig 6-16 2-3 15, Mackenzie Heise 5-5 0-1 10, Team 31-69 4-10 74.

Wilton (76) – Kortney Drake 8-12 3-5 19, Kali Milder 2-4 1-2 6, Alexis Maurer 1-2 3-6 5, Emily Lange 10-18 3-4 29, Aubrey Putman  3-11 7-13 14, Linsey Ford 0-0 3-4 3, Team 24-47 20-34 76.

3-point field goals – WB 8-23 (Vaughan 0-3, T. Koenig 2-8, Thein 4-5, Young 1-2, S. Koenig 1-5); WIL 8-15 (Milder 1-1, Maurer 0-1, Lange 6-9, Putman 1-3). Rebounds – WB 33 (Young 6); WIL 39 (Putman 10). Turnovers – WB 17, WIL 18. Total fouls – WB 22, WIL 12. Fouled out – WB (Heise, Luneckas). Technical fouls – None.