While the Prescott girls’ basketball team has displayed offensive success throughout the 2022-23 season, it was defensive excellence that propelled the Cardinals to a 59-27 victory on the road against Saint Croix Central on Thursday, Dec. 1.

After taking a 12-point lead into the halftime intermission, Prescott’s defense completely neutralized Saint Croix Central’s offense, as they held the Panthers to seven total points in the final 18 minutes of regulation. With the win, Prescott improved to 3-1 for the season and 2-0 in Middle Border Conference play.

When Prescott won its second game of the season, a 65-61 non-conference win on the road against New Richmond, Cardinals head coach Owen Hamilton spoke about his disappointment in that game defensively, particularly how his girls gave up 40 points in the second half and nearly lost a 14-point lead.

Since then, Prescott has locked in defensively, giving up 55 points to a talented Somerset squad and only 27 to the aforementioned Panthers on Thursday night. Coach Hamilton spoke about his team’s performance defensively and how much they’ve embraced being a tough team to score against.

“I think one thing to add with this too is how much our girls are focused on defense,” Hamilton said. “We gave up seven second-half points to SCC, which is insane. Not many teams can say they gave up single-digit points and the girls were more pumped up about that than they were about winning by 32.”

Prescott has several good defenders, but the two that anchor the defense are junior forward Lila Posthuma and senior guard Izzy Matzek. Posthuma controls the inside of the paint and dominates the boards while Matzek is often tasked with guarding the opposition’s best perimeter player.

The two complement one another in every aspect of their games, as Posthuma excels inside the post where she has room to operate and Matzek is a three-point sniper that can hit from nearly anywhere in the halfcourt offense. Matzek is a textbook definition of an excellent and versatile “Three and D” player. She had 14 points, 12 of which came via three-pointers, and three steals in the win over Saint Croix Central. Hamilton spoke about what Matzek brings to the floor.

“I think I’d say Izzy is a good example of a three and D girl who can add a little extra where it’s needed too,” Hamilton said. “She’s been a force for us in defense this year and has fully embraced the challenges we give her. I think she’s grown a lot from last season and a lot of that has been pushing everyone else to get better in all those areas too.”

Although defense was the key to success against Saint Croix Central, senior guard Katrina Budworth got hot on the offensive end for the Cardinals. Budworth, who was last year’s Middle Border Conference Player of the Year, got out to a slow start in the 202223 season, in large part because of a lingering illness that kept her from being 100%.

As she’s gotten her legs back under her throughout the last week, her play has picked up and Thursday night’s game against the Panthers proved to be her best of the season thus far. Budworth finished with 16 points, six rebounds and three assists in the 32-point win.

“Unfortunately for us, Katrina had been sick for a majority of the season, which is why she probably didn’t seem like her allstate self,” Hamilton said of Budworth. “Now she’s starting to feel better, get in better shape and get back to the Katrina that we all know.”

It’s a scary thought for other teams in the Middle Border Conference that Prescott has shown flashes of brilliance – both offensively and defensively – without having last year’s MBC Player of the Year at full health.

Because of the Cardinals’ success on Thursday night, Hamilton got bench players who rarely see the floor some valuable varsity minutes that will likely benefit them later in the season in crucial moments. He spoke about getting the entire varsity roster minutes in the game against SCC.

“I thought our girls came out and took care of the things we had been focusing on,” Hamilton said. “We played how we were supposed to play. Our goal was to make sure everyone played on Thursday, and we were able to do that and keep the energy going.”

Prescott will have a chance to improve to 4-1 and 3-0 in league play in its next contest, a matchup with the Altoona Railroaders on Tuesday, Dec. 6, in Altoona. Last season, Altoona gave Prescott issues throughout the regular season. The Railroaders were the only MBC team to beat Prescott last year, and they did it twice.

Now, first-year head coach Hamilton and the new-look Cardinals have a chance to avenge last year’s losses and potentially have a commanding 3-0 start to conference games in the 2022-23 season. He spoke about the upcoming matchup with Altoona.

“We are definitely prepared and ready to go,” Hamilton said. “I think the biggest thing for the girls is to keep on growing how we have been. Obviously, Altoona will be a good test for us and I think our girls are super excited about the challenge. They were the only conference team to beat us last season and we want to get a win against them.”

That game will take place at Altoona High School on Tuesday, Dec. 6. The tip-off for that MBC matchup is scheduled for 7 p.m.