Heights girls fall in regional quarters

Bring on next season. That’s how Tyler Fuchs and his Wisconsin Heights girls basketball team felt after their 2023-24 season came to an end on Feb. 20. Fifth-seeded Brodhead rolled past the Vanguards, 78-40, in a WIAA Division 4 regional quarterfinal. Wisconsin Heights lost its final eight games of the season and finished the year 4-18 overall. Afterwards, Fuchs and his team had already turned their attention to the 2024-25 campaign. “I’m excited for this summer,” Fuchs said. “We have a good core of girls coming back, JV and varsity, who are hungry to work hard and get better. They are tired of being beat on game after game after game and want to become more competitive.” The Vanguards weren’t overly competitive this season either, going 1-9 in the Capitol South Conference. Heights was also outscored by an average of 18.7 points in its 22 games. Not much changed against Brodhead, as the Cardinals got 28 points from Addie Yates, while Alecia Dahl added 26. Heights got 14 points and 10 rebounds from junior wing Jocelyn Brabender and 11 points and six rebounds from freshman Sonja Severson, but it wasn’t enough. Brodhead built a 51-19 halftime lead, then cruised in the second half. “Brodhead has two very skilled players and they did an excellent job getting them easy open shots to start the game,” Fuchs said. “They got out to a quick lead and were playing with confidence while we were still trying to get going. Their two girls stayed hot the entire game which made it hard to mount any sort of comeback.” Heights graduates seniors Mikayla Teela, Sophia Severson and Alaina Kerl, but also returns seven varsity athletes next season, five that played key roles this year. That’s why the Vanguards are hoping they can take a step forward in 2024-25. “We have girls waiting for their opportunity and I’m ready to see them take full advantage of this opportunity,” Fuchs said. “This summer will be an important one in regards to seeing how hard we are willing to work to get this program turned around. “We return five girls who played significant minutes and two swing players who played two halves of the JV game and were eligible to play one half of varsity,” Fuchs said. “Those two girls made significant improvements over the season and we could see their confidence growing. We are going to need them to take big strides this summer so they can help us out next season.”