GREEN BAY (NBC 26) — The Lena girls basketball team is off to an impressive start this season, winning their ninth straight game Tuesday at the Shawano Hoops Holiday Classic.
“We're being a team," Abby Kostrevia, a junior at Lena, said Tuesday. "We always talk to each other, good communication, don’t get mad at each other, and just good teammates,”
Even with two freshman starters, the Wildcats have quickly gelled as a team.
“It's easy to get along with them," senior Madilyn Thomson said. "It’s really easy to have chemistry when everybody is so willing to learn different things."
Head Coach Tim Goldschmidt said the team focused primarily on defense over the summer, and it shows. Lena is holding opponents to an average of just 26 points per game.
“Like for transition, we always in practice try to get at least higher than 15 transition points which really helps us,” Kostrevia said.
“We're a tough matchup in division five," Goldschmidt said. "We play fast. We play very good defense, so we're tough matchups for a lot of the schools that are in our division."
Goldschmidt added that reaching the state championship two years ago continues to motivate the players who were underclassmen at the time.
“I still go back and look at the pictures from the state run and the videos and everything and these girls are into it and all excited and waiting for their time. Now their time has come, so we'll see what happens,” he said.
Thomson said she believes this team is capable of another trip to the state championship.
“We just have like a willingness and like we're hungry for wins like we're ready to go and we play fast and that's our thing,” she said.
Up next, Lena will face Oneida Nation on Friday, aiming for their 10th straight win.
