Niagara sophomore Bristol Sanicki (10) drives to the paint against Marinette & Oconto Conference foe Lena on Monday at Niagara High School. Sanicki ended the game with six points. (Sean Chase/Daily News photo)

NIAGARA, Wis. — Last season, the Lena girls varsity basketball team fell just short of being crowned the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association’s Division 5 champions. On Monday, the Wildcats found themselves battling to keep their perfect Marinette & Oconto Conference record in tack as they faced off with the Niagara girls basketball team at Niagara High School.

The Lady Badgers battled until the end, but couldn’t maintain their lead as Lena picked up the 42-36 conference win.

“I’m extremely happy with how hard my girls played,” Niagara head coach Karl Lamoreaux said. “I’m extremely happy with them believing that we could beat them and we did everything but that. (There was) a little bit of inexperience with the pressure at the end, but I think we grow from this.

“We’ve got a losing squad in the locker room that’s not hanging their heads. That’s a big thing. (Lena) lost in the state finals last year and they’re supposed to go back.

“They’ve got a couple of really good players and we played nose-to-nose with them,” Lamoreaux added.

One of those players the Lady Badgers had to deal with was 6-foot-1 Winona State University basketball commit Eva Brooks. However, Lamoreaux had a plan.

“(We were) trying to take (Eva Brooks), their No. 1, out of the game,” Lamoreaux said. “Because she’s a Division II recruit. She’s a great athlete on top of being a great basketball player. … So our goal was to cancel her out, push her away from the basket and make her shoot threes.

“We were going to let (Madilyn Thomson) have the block before we ever let (Brooks) have the block. (Thomson) is a very good player, but we were going to pick our poison.”

The plan worked as the Wildcats started out the game ice cold. The only issue was the Lady Badgers couldn’t score either.

After nearly five minutes of scoreless action, Brooks scored on a layup, giving Lena a 2-0 advantage. She wouldn’t score again in the first half.

Peyton Neuens-Allred immediately responded with a 3-pointer from the left wing for Niagara and both teams were off-and-running.

Trailing by one, the Wildcats found a rhythm and quickly made three layups and two 3-pointers to take a 13-4 advantage with six minutes until halftime.

Instead of letting things spiral out of control, Niagara went to work. It locked up the Lena offense, holding the Wildcats scoreless the rest of the first half as a Sydney Swanson 3-pointer, and layups from Alivia Kleikamp, Elesia Sweig and Mallory Sanicki tied the game at 13.

“We went into the locker room and said, ‘This game is playing out exactly the way we wanted it to,'” Lamoreaux said. “It was low scoring. They’re not out on the fast break and (Brooks) wasn’t killing us. I just said, ‘We have to be the team that comes out and makes a statement. We can’t let them be that team.’

“And we did. We came out and we scored and they got into a little bit of a whole. But, they’re so experienced and so talented. Last year, in the tournament, they were down 16 points and came back to win. They’re going to come back.”

Niagara came out of the locker room on a roll as Mallory Sanicki buried a stepback 3-pointer from the right corner.

Bristol Sanicki added a 3-pointer of her own and Kleikamp made a free throw to give the Lady Badgers a 20-13 advantage.

Lena stopped the run with a timeout. Then the Wildcats began to chip away at Niagara’s lead until they pulled back ahead, 31-30, with four minutes to play.

A 3-pointer from Swanson on the next possession gave the Lady Badgers the advantage again.

“Sydney (Swanson) is an all-around girl,” Lamoreaux said. “She can do everything. She’s a hustle girl. She can shoot and she’s not afraid of contact. She’s only about 5-foot-6 and I’ve got her playing defense on the block.

“She’s not afraid to body people, she’s not afraid to work, she’s not afraid to get on the ground. You love having girls like that.”

However, down the stretch, Lena’s pressure got to the young Niagara guards.

As a result, the Wildcats pulled ahead and never looked back, picking up the six-point win.

“I thought my guards did well against the full-court pressure for most of the game,” Lamoreaux said. “Peyton Allred and Bristol Sanicki handled it great.

“They’re both sophomores and they’re going to be working together for two more years after this year.”

Mallory Sanicki led the Lady Badgers with eight points.

Niagara also received contributions from Sweig (2 points), Bristol Sanicki (6 points), Marley Jones (2 points), Neuens-Allred (6 points), Swanson (6 points), Kleikamp (5 points) and Rachael Walker (1 point).

The Lady Badgers are back on the road on Thursday against Coleman.