Eagles’ girls hope to be road warriors

Sauk Prairie’s girls basketball team will get on a bus Friday, take a 113-mile ride to Onalaska, and hope to live another day. The fifth-seeded Eagles begin their postseason journey with a trip to fourth-seeded Onalaska for a WIAA Division 2 regional semifinal at 7 p.m. If seeds hold, the winner would travel to top-seeded West Salem Saturday at 7 p.m. for a regional final. Both Sauk Prairie and Onalaska are 13-11, while West Salem (19-4) is ranked eighth in the state. Eagles coach Jacob Breunig knows if his Eagles are going to get through regionals, they’ll have to play their best basketball of the season this weekend. “We have a tough draw,” Breunig said. “Onalaska is a good team who is playing well. If we can get by them we go to No. 8 in the state West Salem.   “I have had high expectations for this group all year and they have not changed. I expect us to compete this week and see what happens. It is a magical time of year and anything can happen.” The Eagles closed out the regular season with a 61-45 loss to visiting Lodi on Feb. 18 and a 58-46 win at Reedsburg on Feb. 20. Sauk Prairie finished tied for third place in the Badger Small Conference at 9-5. The Eagles’ loss to Lodi came on ‘Senior Night’ and Breunig was able to get all of his seniors in the game.  “I was excited we got to play our seniors and give them the sendoff they deserved,” Breunig said. “We even got senior manager Sienna Wilson in to start the game and she scored the opening bucket, which was honestly the highlight of the season so far. Foreign exchange player Nicole Noguiera also got to play in the varsity game which was awesome.” The game itself wasn’t as much fun, as Lodi grabbed a 20-15 halftime lead and pulled away after intermission. “We played very inconsistently and I was disappointed in that,” Breunig said. “We have struggled all season to find any rhythm of the team we are — or want to be — and that needs to be fixed in practice this week.” Sauk Prairie followed that with a win at Reedsburg, one in which the Eagles held the Beavers to just 14 second half points. Sauk Prairie finished with its best conference record in four seasons and it notched its first win at Reedsburg since 2014. “We showed a lot of adversity after getting down early in this game,” Breunig said. “I was excited for the girls to go in there and get a win. The group I saw play last Friday (at Reedsburg) I am excited to take into the tournament next week.”