Oak Creek girls turn tables on Sabers, use fast start to earn key SEC win

Repeat the verse, only in reverse.

That could have been the mantra of the Oak Creek girls basketball team as the Knights avenged an early-season loss to archrival Franklin by getting off to a fast start and then holding on for a 59-50 Southeast Conference decision on Jan. 31.

"We got off that to good start and then we were able to finish what we started," said Oak Creek coach Steve Hluchnik. "We only had a couple of rough spots, at the start of the third quarter and then from the four to the two-minute marks of the fourth quarter."

The Knights, who lost to league-leading Racine Case last Friday, 43-31, entered this week at 6-4 in Southeast play and 12-5 overall while Franklin (7-3, 10-6) bounced back to rout Racine Horlick, 69-31, last Friday.

Oak Creek will be at Kenosha Tremper (5-5, 8-10) on Friday, while Franklin will entertain Racine Park (3-7, 5-10) the same night.

Franklin coach Tony Kathrens, who was missing a couple of key players for personal reasons (they will return), gave credit to Hluchnik for the way the Knights adapted. Franklin hit Oak Creek with a fast start the first time the teams met and the Knights were never really able to get going offensively.

This time, the Knights started moving quickly and raced out to a 15-7 first quarter lead and then a 30-18 halftime advantage.

"Hluchnik is a great coach," said Kathrens. "They used a nice mix of zone and man. But we would get the lead down and then we had to remember not to rush things (offensively). We just needed to show a little more court discipline which we were not able to do. We had a lot of sophomores and juniors going who hadn't been in big games before."

That trait came up late in the game, as the Knights built a 14-point lead with about four minutes to go, only to see the Sabers rally to cut it to six with about two minutes to go and with the ball.

"That was my fault," said Hluchnik. "I took the air out of the ball too quick."

But then the Sabers missed a three-pointer and then Oak Creek did the smart thing and got the ball into the hands of point guard Morgan Kokta. Kokta would wind up with 10 points, including 8 of 11 free throws, many of which came in those final moments.

"She really wanted the ball in that situation," said Hluchnik, "and that's one part of her game that has really improved. She didn't used to be that way, but now she does all the time. Her confidence has really come a long ways."

Franklin never really threatened again.

Abby Styczynski finished with 13 points to lead Oak Creek, while Tamya Sims added 11. Franklin got 14 points out of Morgan McCuen, while Montana Mack had 10 and Cassidy Mihalko nine.

"They made their free throws when they needed to, give them credit for that," said Kathrens, "and Morgan (Kokta) just had a swagger. She wanted to handle the ball in that situation." He was also very pleased with the play of McCuen and Mack.

"Morgan (McCuen) was just gold; she exploded out there," said Kathrens.

Hluchnik was happy to get the win.

"Our post players did a really nice job," he said, "and I thought that Hannah (freshman guard Settingsgaard) has developed into a really nice back-up point."