Green Bay Notre Dame is chasing a historic state four-peat while Lena is celebrating its first state trip since 1991
GREEN BAY – The Green Bay Notre Dame girls basketball team is two wins away from history entering the WIAA state tournament.
The three-time defending Division 2 champions are attempting to become the first team since the tournament started in 1976 to win four consecutive titles.
But whether the Tritons (27-1) win or lose this weekend, this might be their best team in Sara Rohde’s 13 seasons as coach.
“Yeah, actually, I think it is,” said Rohde, who has led the Tritons to five state titles. “I do think it’s probably the best team I’ve ever coached. My husband and I were talking about this the other night, thinking back to our 2013-14 team that won, and how we would match up.
“I do think our first five is very strong. They are a hard matchup for any team. But I think our girls that are coming off the bench right now are just giving us good minutes and have gained a lot of confidence over the season. Our biggest challenge is not getting into foul trouble, and if that’s the case, I feel like we are in pretty good shape.”
Notre Dame lost a season opener to Pewaukee and hasn’t lost again, following the same script as the last three title teams in losing one of the first few games of the season and responding by going undefeated the rest of the way.
The Tritons have dominated most teams since seniors Gracie Grzesk, Trista Fayta and Sydney Whitehouse walked onto campus as freshmen four years ago.
But not like this year. This year has gone to a whole other level.
Notre Dame is beating teams by an average of 54.9 points and are leading by an average of more than 33 points by halftime.
Hortonville and Alton High School in Illinois are the only teams Notre Dame beat by fewer than double figures. Most didn’t come close to being that lucky, considering the Tritons won games by as many as 116 points.
The four games in tournament play offered little resistance on the way to the big stage.
Notre Dame beat Seymour by 50 and Shawano by 51 in regional play and followed with a 76-point win over Green Bay Southwest in a sectional semifinal and a 45-point victory over Menomonie in a sectional final.
It even dominated the all-conference awards in the Fox River Classic.
Fayta, who is averaging 18.1 points, 7.2 assists, 5 rebounds and 4.5 steals, was named the player of the year and defensive player of the year.
Rohde was coach of the year, Fayta, Grzesk (17.5 ppg, 7.1 rpg) and Whitehouse (12 ppg) made the first team, fellow starters Peyton Musial (12.9 ppg) and Kaia Waldrop (12.5 ppg) were selected to the second team, and Whitehouse and Waldrop joined Fayta on the all-defensive team.
Good luck facing all that.
Even Rohde has been a bit surprised by how overwhelming a force her squad has been, especially in the scoring department. The rate at which they score, and how fast they put up points, has set Notre Dame apart from its peers.
“My girls in general are shooting the ball pretty well. … They share the ball so well,” Rohde said. “They are high percentage shooters. I feel like we take pretty good shots, and just in general, we are pretty efficient on offense.”
The Tritons play Wauwatosa East (23-5) in a D2 state semifinal at approximately 3:35 p.m. Friday at the Resch Center in Ashwaubenon.
The Red Raiders are at state for the first time since 1981, and like most teams playing the Tritons, they will be an underdog.
“To be the best, you’ve got to play the best,” Wauwatosa East coach Mary Merg said. “Obviously, Notre Dame has proven their success over the last few years, winning back-to-back-to-back.
“I’d say we don’t match up equally to them. We both have kind of unique, different strengths than each other. I guess a little bit of similar as well. A lot of people think we are the underdogs in this situation, and to be honest, we don’t mind being underdogs.”
Notre Dame is the No. 2 seed at state for the second straight season because of its loss to Pewaukee, which is the No. 1 seed and has lost just one game.
There is a good chance the teams will meet in the title game for the third straight year.
The Pirates would be a formidable test, not only because they beat the Tritons, but because they have seven of their eight top scorers back from last season and boast the same type of NCAA level talent as Notre Dame.
“At the end of the day, whoever wins this thing has got to beat two really good teams,” Pewaukee coach Jim Reuter said. “I like our chances, but I’m sure that they do, too.”
Lena celebrates return to state
While Notre Dame has made the state tournament an annual event, Lena found a way to break through for the first time since 1991.
The Wildcats are hoping to win the second state title in program history and the first since 1980.
Lena has come a long way in recent years, going from one of the worst teams in the state to one of the best.
The Wildcats went 1-21 in 2018-19 and followed with a 1-22 campaign in 2019-20, but their fortunes quickly changed.
They went from nine wins in 2020-21 to 14 the next season and 21 last season.
Lena is 27-2 entering state and received a No. 2 seed. It will face No. 3 seed Clear Lake in a D5 state semifinal at approximately 10:45 a.m. Friday.
The Wildcats started two freshmen in Natalie McNurlen and Chaela Rabas when they won one game in 2019-20, and it was those two and others who started to help reshape the program to where it is now, even if they no longer are on the team.
“Usually, I’m not a coach who starts freshmen,” Lena coach Tim Goldschmidt said. “But we didn’t have any other way to go. These girls started, built our program, did a lot of offseason work. Helped out a lot of our younger kids.
“Each year, we progressed win-wise. It’s just culture. Once you get a winning culture, it kind of breeds success. That’s where we have headed from there.”
Lena is led by the standout duo of 6-foot-1 junior forward Eva Brooks, who is averaging a team-high 19.7 points and 11.8 rebounds, and sophomore forward Madi Thomson. The 5-10 Thomson is averaging 15.4 points, 6.7 rebounds and shooting 59.7%.
“Our community, our faculty, our school, us being a little community, it has been just unbelievable the support we have gotten,” Goldschmidt said. “The excitement that is around the community and in the school, I mean, it’s a dream come true for the kids and myself.”
48th WIAA state girls basketball tournament
When: Thursday through Saturday.
Where: Resch Center, Ashwaubenon.
Thursday's semifinals - Division 3: Edgewood (25-3) vs. Baldwin-Woodville (22-6), 1:35 p.m.; Kettle Moraine Lutheran (24-4) vs. Xavier (21-7), 15 minutes after first semifinal. Division 4: Laconia (26-2) vs. The Prairie School (25-3), 6:35 p.m.; Chippewa Falls McDonell Catholic (25-2) vs. Cuba City (24-4), 15 minutes after first semifinal.
Friday's semifinals - Division 5: Argyle/Pecatonica (26-1) vs. Albany/Monticello (25-3), 9:05 a.m.; Lena (27-2) vs. Clear Lake (26-3), 15 minutes after first semifinal. Division 2: Pewaukee (27-1) vs. West Salem (24-4), 1:35 p.m.; Notre Dame (27-1) vs. Wauwatosa East (23-5), 15 minutes after first semifinal. Division 1: Hartland Arrowhead (25-3) vs. Franklin (20-8), 6:35 p.m.; Hartford (26-2) vs. Neenah (23-5), 15 minutes after first semifinal.
Saturday's title games: 3-Point Challenge, 9:30 a.m.; D5 championship, 11:05 a.m.; D4 championship, 15 minutes after previous game; D3 championship, 15 minutes after previous game. D2 championship, 6:35 p.m.; D1 championship, 15 minutes after previous game.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Notre Dame, Lena hope to win WIAA girls state basketball titles
