After starting the season with the first official practice on Monday, Nov. 7, the Prescott and River Falls High School girls’ basketball teams competed in an early-season scrimmage on Friday, Nov. 11, in River Falls along with Hudson and Somerset.

Although none of the games kept recorded scores or official stats, it was the first time in the 2022-23 season that the local girls’ basketball programs got to see live competition against other area schools.

The Prescott Cardinals played the first game of the afternoon docket against the Hudson Raiders. Each game consisted of four 12-minute quarters of running clock. Throughout the first game, Prescott appeared to be running its offense through junior forward Lila Posthuma, who earned First-Team All-Conference honors in the Middle Border last season.

Other familiar faces took to the floor, including senior Katrina Budworth, who was selected as the Middle Border Conference Player of the Year last season, senior Izzy Matzek who was a Second-Team All-Conference selection and senior Rhi Stutz who reprises her role in the starting lineup.

Throughout that debut scrimmage against Hudson, Prescott pushed the pace and worked to get off the glass quickly and push the pace in transition. First-year head coach Owen Hamilton, who served as an assistant under former head coach Joan Korfhage last season, spoke about the Cardinals’ identity this season.

“I love to get it out into transition, especially with the girls that we have,” Hamilton said. “We have quick, fast and athletic girls. The same thing goes for other teams though, they’re going to want to go to transition so we’ve got to get back and we’re going to work on that. As much as we want to do it, other teams are going to want to do it too.”

Even as a sophomore last season, Posthuma played a pivotal role for that Cardinals team that finished the season with a 19-8 record as the Middle Border Conference champions and made a run to the Sectional Semifinal.

Throughout last season, Posthuma proved to be an effective scorer but often looked to distribute to her teammates instead of filling up the box score by herself. In the scrimmage against Hudson, she was much more aggressive, which coach Hamilton believes is Posthuma’s continued growth as a player.

“I think she’s coming out of her shell even more than she did last year,” Hamilton said. “We’re hoping those shots (that she took tonight) are the shots that she’s going to be taking all the time. I’ve talked to her a lot about being confident in her shot and knowing that she’s always going to be one of the best players on the court.”

Prescott capped off the evening with a game against River Falls in which the Cardinals continued to push the pace in transition and gain experience against a much-improved Wildcats roster. After the scrimmage concluded, Hamilton spoke about his team’s first live action of the year.

“I thought we started a little slow, but we definitely built up,” Hamilton said. “It’s tough to come out with four days of practice and expect the girls to be doing everything in midseason form, which obviously I wasn’t. The things that we need to tighten up are the things I was expecting to have to tighten up. Overall, pretty happy with how today went.”

Prescott will play its first official game of the season on Tuesday, Nov. 15, at home against Elk Mound, a team that went 19-7 last season and played in a Regional Championship game. That contest will begin at Prescott High School at 7 p.m.

River Falls Wildcats Scrimmage

The River Falls girls’ basketball team began its Friday night scrimmage with a game against Prescott and then played the latter half of the back-to-back against the Somerset Spartans.

For River Falls head coach Ian Sticht, Friday night’s scrimmage was a reassurance that his roster will likely be much better than last season, especially having not lost a single player to graduation.

The Wildcats return the entire starting lineup including standout seniors Olivia Pizzi and Ella Peters. Junior Jordan Schwantz, who finished last season second on the team in both points and rebounds per game to only the aforementioned Peters, returns to the paint as an interior force.

Point guard Keyah Strop returns for her junior campaign after an impressive sophomore season that included just over nine points per game, which was third on the team, and nearly three assists per game, a figure that led the team.

River Falls, Prescott and all of the other teams at the scrimmage fell into the same boat of a quick turnaround after Monday’s first official practice of the season. Peters, Schwantz and Pizzi appeared to have all taken a collective leap, as they controlled the pace of the game in the scrimmage and limited turnovers, something the Wildcats as a whole struggled with last season.

Pizzi made a noticeable jump in scoring, as she was regularly hitting jumpers from various locations around the floor throughout both games. Peters continues to orchestrate the Wildcats’ offense and Schwantz provides that interior presence that will give less physical teams fits throughout the season.

“Yeah, I think we expect more of ourselves (this season),” Sticht said after the scrimmage. “We’ve still got to win games and perform, but I think we took our sophomore lumps last year. I think we will be better and more consistent. More consistency across the board is how we will find success this season.”

Consistency will be a huge aspect of this year’s Lady Wildcats team. There were instances last season where the stars would align and River Falls would knock off Hudson, as it did in the 46-41 win over the Raiders on Dec. 3 last year.

There were also instances where River Falls would go on extended losing streaks, including a six-game skid from Dec. 9 to Jan. 7 last season. This season will be about consistency, as coach Sticht and the girls have talked about.

“I think they have a better mindset going into the year and they think that we’re going to have a better year,” Sticht said. “They understood last year that we weren’t as consistent as we needed to be and our practices weren’t as good as they needed to be.”

River Falls will begin its regular season with the first official game on Tuesday, Nov. 15, on the road against the Ellsworth Panthers. That game is slated to begin at 7 p.m.

Prescott junior forward Lila Posthuma shoots a free throw during the Cardinals’ scrimmage against Hudson in River Falls on Friday, Nov. 11. Posthuma got to the line often, as she attacked the rack and took control of the game offensively for Prescott. Photo by Reagan Hoverman