Posted: Feb. 14, 2010 |(0) Comments

Germantown — The girls basketball team's 51-28 rout of Cedarburg on Friday can be looked at in many ways.

On the surface, it can be seen as a great turnaround from the 50-37 loss the Warhawks suffered at the hands of the Bulldogs back on Jan. 5.

If you scratch a little deeper though, it can also be seen as a moment of redemption, as injured senior point guard Melissa Klemm made a couple of brief appearances, during which she hit a 28-foot quarter ending 3-pointer.

The win was the fifth in six tries for the Warhawks since Klemm hurt her knee, and it was her first action since suffering the injury.

Or, if you dig down to the heart of the matter, it can be seen as a hearty historical document - one that Warhawks girls hoops fans will savor for awhile, because two major events occurred.

Record-breaking night

The most important of which was that it was Germantown's 15th win of the season, breaking a team record set about 10 years ago, and all-state candidate forward Eliza Wortman, with her 20 point effort, went over 800 points for her career (801).

She is the first Germantown girls player to reach that level.

Such is the ground-breaking nature of this Warhawks team that coach Matt Stuve is working with another player who takes a sports marketing class to dig up as many of the old school records as possible and see how many this current team has broken.

Former Warhawks coach Dennis Kloth is also busy in that endeavor.

"We are working to change the culture of the program," said Stuve. "The senior group we have is determined to do better all the time."

Germantown boys coach Steve Showalter, who had to work himself to change the hoops culture when he arrived 10 years ago, has been impressed with the effort.

"You win five of six without your point guard?" he asked rhetorically. "That's not easy to do no matter what program you're working with. When that happens, you're bound to lose ground every time."

"But Matt (Stuve) has done an impressive job of adapting to the talent that he has. They're playing a trapping, pressing and running style which I love, which is fun to watch."

The Warhawks (10-2 in North Shore play and 15-3 overall) all but clinched second-place in the NSC with the win. They still have an outside hope of a share of the league crown, as they prepare to visit league-leader Nicolet (11-0, 16-1) at 7:30 p.m. Thursday.

The Knights hit Germantown with a big first quarter effort back on Jan. 8 and held off the Warhawks, 68-52.

"Our best hope is to contain their runs and try to stay close," said Stuve.

Germantown never let Cedarburg (6-4, 11-7) get too close, outscoring the Bulldogs in every quarter, including a 13-4 first session outburst that gave them the lead for good.

Klemm tests her knee

The highlight of that period was when point guard Kate Benson brought the ball up late, gave Klemm a pass and Klemm calmly drained a long 3-pointer just as the buzzer sounded.

Klemm, who several weeks ago injured the same knee that she did last season, has been working with trainer Jamie Pecha to see if she can still play with the injury, which will eventually require surgery.

"We started her and let her see how far she could go," Stuve said. "She did have some trouble decelerating, and we're going to sit down with her and see how far she wants to take this, but with the passion she has for the game it's going to be hard to keep her off the floor."

The 3-pointer was the only score of the game for Klemm but it was a big emotional lift for the team.

Meanwhile, the 6-2 Wortman continued in her consistent efforts with six baskets and eight-of-nine free throw attempts. Recently, the returning All-Suburban selection moved ahead of all-time Warhawks great Amy Nickel (741 points) for the team career scoring lead.

"It was just a good night overall," said Stuve.