Posted: Dec. 20, 2009 |(0) Comments

It was the third game of the week for the Germantown girls basketball team, but the formula remained the same against border rival Menomonee Falls Saturday night.

Build a big lead through a sound combination of balanced offense and dominating pressure defense and then take the foot off the gas and let everyone have a chance to play.

The result was a lead that reached 28 at one point as the Warhawks coasted to an historic eighth win in a row with a 52-39 win.

"We're really excited about this," said senior guard Melissa Klemm, who led all scorers with 16. "We're just building confidence everyday. ..We definitely knew that we'd be pretty good, but we weren't sure if it would play out quite like this."

Germantown coach Matt Stuve was hoping to reach the end of the 2009 portion of the season with an unblemished mark.

"We're keeping it one day at a time," he said, "and we're keeping to the idea of trying to get better everyday. But this (8-0 in December) was clearly a goal. We have some big games now in January and now we have a chance to work out a few things."

"We made a solid attempt to attack the basket, which is what we wanted to do," said Indian coach Craig Amundson, whose team fell to 2-4 on the season. "They're just so much more experienced than we are. It was still fun to play them. We haven't built up the rivalry with them like the boys have, but I talked to Matt (Stuve) afterwards and I told him that we'd like to continue this game on a regular basis."

A free throw by Falls sophomore forward Alex Poole (14 points) gave the Indians an initial 1-0 lead, but that would prove to be the high-water mark for the Indians, as the Warhawks would score seven unanswered points, including five by center Eliza Wortman (15 points) to take the lead for good.

Falls hung close at the quarter, trailing only 16-11, but then Germantown took firm control at the start of the second session, going on a 12-2 run to chase the lead up to 28-13 with 4:51 remaining in the half. Klemm had two three-pointers in the run while Wortman scored the remaining six points.

The lead never dropped below 10 points again after that, as a 16-0 burst between the second and third quarters built the advantage to 48-20. The Warhawks never wavered despite foul trouble to starters like Rachel Hoft and Wortman. Rachel Defnet added nine for Falls, which was hampered by poor 12 of 30 free throw shooting.

In an odd turn of events, Germantown built a 52-26 lead at the end of the third quarter, but as Stuve emptied the bench, the Indians were able to outscore the Warhawks 13-0 in the fourth period.

"It really was no different for us than usual," said Stuve. "We tried to set the tone early and be aggressive though we were a little sluggish in the first quarter. In the second quarter we were really able to pick it up."

Which Klemm hopes the team continues to do throughout the remainder of the season.

"We're ready for some serious winning now," she said.