FC one of three WCC teams in sectional tournament

One of these things is not like the other.
Of the four teams in the WIAA Division 4 Eau Claire North Sectional Tournament, one sticks out from what they are not.
A member of the Western Cloverbelt Conference
Three teams from the tough and top-heavy WCC have qualified for this year's tournament: defending champ and No. 4 ranked Chippewa Falls McDonell (24-2), No. 9 ranked and WCC co-champ with the Macks Fall Creek (23-3) and Eau Claire Regis (21-5) a No. 3 seed in the tournament and third place in the WCC.
Forgive the stand-out for feeling a little slighted.
Phillips (24-2) is long been a northwoods power in girls basketball and once again won the Marawood North Division title and once again finds itself in the sectional tournament. And once again finds itself unranked.
The Loggers will have the honor of taking on and taking the defending sectional champs. The Loggers edged Cameron 79-73 in last week's regional championship game to get this far. Kacy Eggebrecht, who has been a leading scorer for Phillips ever since she was a freshman taking her team to the sectional finals against Fall Creek back in '21, leads the way again. The UW-Eau Claire-bound Eggebrecht, a 5-7 senior guard, averages over 21 points per game. But Eggebrecht has some fire -support as well coming from 5-9 junior guard Mataya Eckert, who averages nearly 20 points per game and her sister, senior 5-10 power forward Brooke Eckert at eight points per game. Both Eckerts and Eggebrecht are also team leaders in rebounds and assists as well.
Now they just have to figure out how to stop trio from McDonell of 6-0 senior center Aubrey Dorn and the sharp-shooting guards, the Cooper sisters senior Emily and freshman Ella Mae. The Macks haven't lost since their 49-45 middle-of-the regular season defeat to Fall Creek and had no problems stuffing then-ranked Neillsville by 20 in the Cloverbelt Conference Championship or winning the regional championship easily over a strong Stratford squad 85-41 last weekend. McDonell also has some depth to deploy as well beside their big three in 6-0 freshman center Annie Siegenthaler, 5-11 senior forward Kali Goulet and 5-8 freshman shooting guard Claire Ruf. A big game from any of these players along with Dorn and the Coopers would make McDonell very tough to beat,
Speaking of beating, the Crickets did beat Regis twice in the regular season both times by solid margins 58-44 and 53-40 although both games were close initially. Regis has been managing to find its way forward successfully without their top player Carly Borst due to injury with the play of 6-1 senior center Ashley Chilson, who averages a double-double in both scoring and rebounding, along with senior and also team stat leader Ava Highman and 5-11 sophomore forward Izzy Reichert. The Ramblers have won five straight including a defensive battle over Durand-Arkansaw in the regional finals 37-29.
"We know each other well. All of in the league have that knowlege of each other and their tendencies," FC head coach Jason Martzke said. "So when that's the case, it's the little things that you have to do well that will make the difference and certainly will for us this weekend."
Fall Creek comes into the tournament with a young squad but a deep one playing great defense with balanced scoring on offense. Top scorers include sophomore center Jasmin Heuer, senior forward Kambel Sell and junior guard Addy Haynes, who has come off the bench to average nine points per game and is one of the team's best shooters. But often times any of these three players or none of them can lead the team in scoring as the points can also come from junior point guard Kennedy Tumm or junior forward Gracie Marten or junior center Sophie Schmidgall. The Crickets have not lost since an early January defeat at McDonell and their only other losses were early-season defeats to Durand-Arkansaw and still-going Elk Mound.
Fall Creek and Regis will clash at Osseo-Fairchild while Phillips and McDonell square off in Ladysmith tonight, 7 p.m. tip-times. The finals of the tournament will be at Eau Claire North Saturday, March 2 beginning at 1 p.m.
https://halftime.wiaawi.org/CustomApps/Tournaments/Brackets/HTML/2024_Ba...