By Tim Wester
Sports Correspondent
Union Grove girls basketball coach Rob Domagalski is enjoying every moment of his team’s playoff run.
Including the moments of trepidation when McFarland unleashed a 16-0 run early the second half that left the Broncos scrambling down the stretch of their WIAA Division 2 regional final contest.
Just like their head coach, the Broncos remained calm under pressure and held McFarland to just five points in the final five minutes of the game to claim a grueling 54-48 victory Saturday, Feb. 27.
Union Grove was scheduled to play Milton in a sectional semifinal at Fort Atkinson Thursday night. Results were not available before press deadline.
Brooklyn Bull led the way with 16 points, including five clutch points in the final minutes of the game, while Janelle Shiffler also added 16, and Frankie Pettit chipped in 12 to punch the Broncos’ ticket to the WIAA Division 2 Sectional semifinal.
“In the second half we had looks and could not get ball in the hoop during that McFarland run,” Domagalski said. But we fought through it, and that’s a good thing where we were mentally tough to not to let the pressure and frustration to get to us.”
The Broncos championship-level poise was put to the test after the Trojans opened the second half with a 16-0 run and turned a 30-21 Bronco lead into a 37-30 McFarland advantage.
The Trojans maintained their advantage for most of the second half before Bull scored 5 straight points to give Union Grove a 2-point lead.
The Broncos stifling defense took over from there, helping the Broncos maintain the lead the rest of the way.
“We switched our defense from a zone to man-to-man and held McFarland to 2 points in a five minutes span down the stretch,” Domagalski said. “That in itself, along with clutch shots Bull and Pettit, were the differences for us.”
The Broncos’ difference makers went to work from the opening tip, helping Union Grove open a 30-21 halftime lead.
“We played well for most of the game, minus those minutes during their run,” Domagalski said. “We’ve had some scoring draughts in other games this year, and when it happens, we tend to put additional pressure on ourselves that we don’t need and then we press our shots. But the bottom line is we won the game, which is all that matters in single elimination playoffs.”
The Broncos had a more anti-climatic 67-49 victory over visiting Jefferson the night before in the regional semifinals. Pettit led the way with a game-high 20 points, while Shiffler had 19 and Bull had 18.
“McFarland doesn’t run as much as Jefferson, who played a wide-open, full-court press game,” Domagalski said. “In the game against Jefferson we saw a man-to-man defense, and then the following night we saw a matchup zone.
“This is what makes playoff basketball so fun in having to make adjustments on the fly and prepare for teams on short notice. We prefer to play in games where neither team knows each other because we have confidence that we can make the right adjustments as a coaching staff.”
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