Posted: Feb. 3, 2010

Greendale — With a senior class loaded with three starters who have spent more than three seasons on the varsity, the Greendale girls basketball team came into this campaign as a team on the rise.

And the Panthers are starting to make their move.

With a 48-41 road win at Franklin on Jan. 26, and a 45-43 home victory over Whitnall three nights later, Greendale extended its winning streak to eight games. The perfect month of January (the streak actually began Dec. 30) represents the program's longest winning streak since the Panthers won 11 straight from Dec. 28, 2006, to Feb. 13, 2007, the season the Panthers last qualified for the state tournament.

Team on a roll

"We've been playing a lot more as a team," second-year coach Andy Schroeder said. "To start the season, we started with Pewaukee, Eisenhower and Cudahy (in three of the first four games) without having any nonconference games in there. That was difficult and it took a little while to bring everyone on the same page. Once we figured that out, we've had some success."

Greendale, now 11-4 overall and 9-3 in conference, sits alone in second place in the Woodland Conference Black Division, two games behind the New Berlin Eisenhower Lions, whom the Panthers visit Feb. 12.

Merg key to success

Leading the way is the senior trio of guard Mary Merg, center Kelsey Pohlmann and guard Lauren Piotrowski. All three have appeared in varsity games since their freshman year and rank in the top 13 active career scoring leaders in the NOW coverage area.

Merg, who is ranked fifth on that list, has emerged as a lethal scorer. She is averaging 14.6 points per game, also fifth best in the NOW area, including four efforts of 20 or more points. She has led the Panthers in scoring in 12 of 15 games, and has scored fewer than 10 points only three times.

Merg has come on strong as of late with back-to-back 20-point efforts. She matched a season-high with a game-high 21 against Franklin and then added 20 against Whitnall, including a late 3-pointer that gave her team the lead for good.

"She's taken that role as one of the main scorers on our team, but she's also our point guard and she runs our offense," Schroeder said. "There have been a couple games where she's been down in scoring, but she's stepped it up as a point guard, getting everyone involved and taking a backseat in scoring."

Trio works well together

Pohlmann and Piotrowski, along with junior guard/forward Brooke Robinette, provide balance behind Merg's exploits. The trio combined for 19 points against Franklin and 24 against Whitnall.

Pohlmann continues to deal with a back injury that kept her off the court for a number of games as a sophomore and once this season, but is averaging 9.4 points per game. Piotrowski, who missed time last season with an elbow injury, sat out four games and parts of two others early in the season, but is healthy now and averaging 7.7 points.

Thanks largely to the 6-foot-2-inch Pohlmann locking down the paint defensively, the Panthers have also excelled at shutting down their opponents to the tune of 38.7 points per game, the team's best effort since holding foes to 34.9 during the 2006-07 season.

The Panthers host Greenfield (1-14, 1-11) at 7:30 p.m. Friday in preparation for their showdown with first-place Eisenhower.

 

- David Cotey

ACTIVE SCORING LEADERS

Current active leading scorers among all 21 NOW-area high schools. All seniors, unless noted.

GIRLS

1. Angela Rodriguez, Oak Creek, 852 points

2. Lauren Hibbard, West Allis Central, 829

3. Katie Ellerson, Muskego, 748

4. Eliza Wortman, Germantown, 740

5. Mary Merg, Greendale, 731

EDITOR'S NOTE: all stats accumulated from JS Online database as of Feb. 1.