FREEDOM — Postseason play has begun for high school girls basketball in Wisconsin and the 23-1 Freedom girls basketball team is ranked number one in Division three. They also locked up a No.1 seed for tournament play.
The Irish lost their first game of the season last week to Division 2's Mosinee, who have also only lost one game this season
“A lot of people are like, ‘they’re undefeated, they’re undefeated," said junior guard Sadie Jarmolowicz, who is the leading scorer on the Irish averaging 16 points and five assists per game. "Nobody’s going to be saying that anymore, so we can just focus on ourself. No distractions.”
With a perfect season out the window, the loss takes a huge weight off their back. The girls learned from that loss that they have to improve their composure.
“You don’t like to say it — losses can turn into positive experiences, as long as we handle it the right way,” said head coach Mike Vander Loop.
“That gym (at Mosinee) was packed," said senior forward and center Megan Alexander. "The atmosphere was loud. A lot of us just got in our heads. We’d miss a layup and then we’d put our head down and then we wouldn’t go play defense.”
If you watch any game Freedom plays, their ball movement on offense is hard not to notice. They also can sink the three-ball with the best of them. The Irish has six players that finished the regular season shooting 37% or better from beyond the arc.
“Nobody wants to be the leading scorer, or ball hog, or anything," said Jarmolowicz. "We all just work together as a team. We don’t have any people who are selfish or to themselves and we all just like distributing the ball seeing someone else just put it in the hoop.”
On defense, they come at you with a full court press once the ball is tipped.
“Immediately when they get the ball inbounds, if we can at least apply some pressure, they’re going to have to work hard and maybe that their tank is going to empty early in the game," Vander Loop said. "Looking to extend our pressure is an important part of our game.”
Their first playoff game is on Friday night and they’re looking to make their way to the Resch Center.
“I think we just need to keep doing what we’re doing. Practicing hard. Focusing on film. Focusing on staying together as a team. No distractions and just chemistry on the court,” said Jarmolowicz.
Freedom hosts Clintonville in their first playoff game this Friday at 7 p.m. and in their previous two matchups the Irish won both games outscoring them 129-28.
