Eagles’ girls drop a pair

The end result wasn’t what they wanted. But Sauk Prairie’s girls basketball team certainly wasn’t disappointed with their performances last week. The Eagles dropped a 62-52 decision to McFarland on Jan. 23. Sauk Prairie then fell to Lake Mills, 48-42, last Saturday. The Eagles now 9-7 overall and 4-5 in the ultra-competitive Badger Small Conference. Here’s a recap of the Eagles’ week: • McFarland 62, Sauk Prairie 52 — The Eagles held Spartans’ star Teagan Mallegni — an Iowa recruit — to five points. But McFarland put three other players in double figures and held off a furious upset effort by the Eagles. Mallory Hartwig had a career-high 27 points to power the Eagles.   “She got to the rim and finished shots, which I hope is going to help her confidence,” Sauk Prairie coach Jacob Breunig said of Hartwig.  Ava Brings and Erelyn Apel each added 10 points for the Eagles. “I was incredibly proud of our team effort and play vs. McFarland,” Breunig said. “Alexis (Atkinson), Mallory (Hartwig), and Brooklyn (Kaufman) did fantastic limiting (Mallegni) opportunities to score along with the rest of the team playing good position defense.   “McFarland is a good team, though, and others stepped up and hit shots, which is what good teams do. Knowing we are that close is both great from the sense we can learn we are a good team, but frustrating we cannot pull a game like this out.” • Lake Mills 48, Sauk Prairie 42 — Erelyn Apel had 14 points and Alexis Atkinson added 11, but it wasn’t enough for the Eagles. “This game was a slugfest,” Breunig said. “It was close throughout, but Lake Mills made a few more plays than we did and I give them credit for it.” Breunig was happy with some elements of the Eagles’ performances, but frustrated with others. “My frustration after this game was we come down on offense for a while and run great offense and get great looks and the next times down we struggle to seem to know what we are doing,” Breunig said. “The girls just need to relax and believe they and their teammates are capable of success every time we have the ball in our hands.   “We will continue to work on areas we need to improve on and make this the best team we can be going forward.” • On deck: Sauk Prairie was at Mount Horeb Tuesday, then host Portage Friday at 5:45 p.m.