Strong Schulz Helps Wasps Girls Basketball Top Chieftans

By George Calver, Standard Correspondent

Finally healthy, senior co-captain Madison Schulz scored a game-high 21 points Friday night to lead the Woodstock girls basketball team to its third win of the season, edging out the Green Mountain Chieftains 47-40 at Dailey Gym.

Schulz, with the help of senior guard Mariah Luce’s 16 points, and contributions from freshman Natalie Stevens (6 points) and junior, Emma Walker (4 points) helped give credence to first-year head coach Tim MacDonnell’s prediction that his young team would gradually improve.

“This game showed the growth we are continuing to work toward,” MacDonnell said.

Schulz, last year’s leading scorer, started the season with a heavy brace on her right knee to support a limb weakened by ACL surgery that had kept her on the sidelines during the field hockey team’s run to the state championship game. And, as might be expected, Schulz’s return to basketball form was a slow process. Yet, her minutes increased game by-game until she was back into the starting lineup against Hartford and contributed a game-high 13 points in that loss.

But in the final minute of that contest she pivoted and grimaced in pain as she clutched her knee, perhaps signaling that she might be relegated again to the sideline. Luckily for her, and for her teammates, it was merely a minor tweak.

On Friday, Natalie Stevens got the Wasps off to a quick start with two layups in the first minute of the game and the home team stretched that into a 12-8 lead after the first quarter. The Chieftains and the Wasps played a fairly wellbalanced second period, and as the first half buzzer sounded the teams walked to their locker rooms tied at 22 points.

A strong defensive effort in the third quarter helped Woodstock build a seven-point lead going into the fourth quarter (35-28), and though Green Mountain nipped away to cut the Wasps’ lead to only one possession midway through the final quarter, a good showing at the free-throw line – eight out of 10—nailed down the victory.

MacDonnell credited the extended minutes from Kaylee Longley, Brook Heston, Cammie Rediker and Emma Walker as one of the keys to victory Friday night.

The Wasps, now 3-4, still have more than half of a season left to play.

Woodstock returns to action Wednesday Jan. 25, when it will travel to Windsor to face the Yellowjackets.

This article first appeared in the January 19, 2016 edition of the Vermont Standard.