Lutheran Girls Stumble in AAA Showdown with St. Dominic

The basketball team wasted little time in building a sizeable lead in last night’s AAA Conference showdown against the Lady Cougars at Lutheran High School. 

Lauren Needham’s basket at the 2:22 mark in the first quarter gave St. Dominic a 21-0 lead in the battle of two previously unbeaten AAA schools. The early lead propelled the Lady Crusaders past Lutheran 73-55.

The tide turned early in favor of St. Dominic thanks to turnovers—the Lady Cougars committed 10 turnovers in the first quarter while St. Dominic had four. St. Dominic also came out firing from both the field and the free-throw line. The Lady Crusaders went 13 for 16 from the field and went for six from the line. 

“This is a real tough place for us to play,” St. Dominic Coach Suzie Mennemeier said after the 73-55 win. “So we knew coming out that we would have to be intense and get a lot of defensive stops, but not only did we have a lot of stops, we also had a lot of steals. I was real pleased with the pressure.” 

The win puts St. Dominic in first place in the race for the AAA title. The Lady Crusaders improve to 12-5 overall and 6-0 in the league, while Lutheran falls to 13-5 overall and 6-1 in the conference. 

“You have to give a lot of credit to them and we didn’t make it easy on ourselves,” Lutheran coach Erin Pauk said. “We kept making the same mistakes over and over again. There were some nerves at that point and they took us out of what we wanted to do, but when you dig that big of a hole, it’s hard to get out. I was proud of way our kids kept competing.”  

Lutheran narrowed the lead some by the end of the first quarter, as the Lady Crusaders led 31-10 at the end of the quarter. But St. Dominic controlled the lead throughout the entire game. The Lady Crusaders led 44-24 at halftime, a big offensive output for a team Mennemeier said that averages roughly 44 points per game. 

The Lady Cougars outscored St. Dominic 16-13 in the third quarter, but the Lady Crusaders still led 57-40 at the end of the quarter. St. Dominic had three players in double figures: Needham (22), Kelly Schnieders (18), and Kristin Wolff (10). 

“We had a good all-around effort tonight by everybody,” Mennemeier said. “It wasn’t just one or two kids. Everybody played well and it’s really the first time this year we’ve done that. ”

Needham said that Lutheran has always played St. Dominic tough. 

“We’ve always had a good run with them, it’s hard,” she said. “So it felt good coming out that first quarter and putting it on. I’m glad. Everyone was fired up tonight.”  

Lutheran had two players in double figures, as Claire Schoedel finished the contest with 22 points and Lauren Orr had 14.