After slow start Oak Creek girls find way to beat Park

Oak Creek - Listless after a hard week of semester exams, it took the Oak Creek girls basketball team a full quarter to get rolling against Racine Park in a Southeast Conference game on Friday.

But once the Knights did get going, they did with a vengeance, outscoring the Panthers 34-11 in the middle two quarters to pull away for a 58-43 victory.

"We really did come out flat," said Knights coach Steve Hluchnik. "We were down 10-4 before we knew it, but then we got out on that run and we were able to keep it there. I just wish we started with a little more spark."

The win left the Knights in fourth place in the Southeast at 5-3, 10-4 overall. They will have a league bye this week. They hosted City Conference power Milwaukee King on Tuesday and then will host archrival Franklin (6-2, 9-4) in a critical game on Jan. 31.

In the Park (2-6, 4-8) game, it was 11-11 at the quarter but then the Knights broke the game open and made it 31-20 at the half. It became 45-22 at the end of three quarters.

Again Oak Creek's balance served it well as a total of 10 players scored including Maggie Wilke with 10, Katie Finn with nine, and Abby Styczynski, Tamya Sims and Rebecca Running with eight apiece.

"I wasn't really pleased with our lack of spark," Hluchnik said, "but I was with our balance. We had a lot of contributions, and with our big stretch coming up, that'll really help us."

The Knights will play Southeast leader Racine Case on Feb. 3.

"We've lost tough games to Case and Franklin and we had chances in both of them," said Hluchnik. "We've got chances to help ourselves right now."

He praised point guard Morgan Kokta for her efforts.