Owen Hamilton earns first win of his head coaching career

The Prescott girls’ basketball team narrowly escaped a catastrophic meltdown late in the second half in the 65-61 victory on the road against the New Richmond Tigers on Friday, Nov. 18.

The non-conference victory marked the first win of Owen Hamilton’s head coaching career. Hamilton served as an assistant on last year’s staff before making the transition to head coach this offseason.

The first victory of Hamilton’s career didn’t come easy, although it often appeared as if Prescott was going to run away with it. The Cardinals led 36-21 at halftime and even held a 14-point lead with seven minutes to go in the second half.

That’s when New Richmond threw on a 1-3-1 press in desperation and found instant success against Prescott. The Cardinals regularly turned the ball over when faced with that pressure and the lead slowly began to evaporate. Coach Hamilton spoke about the near-disaster.

“As soon as they went to 1-3-1 it seemed like we kind of forgot basketball and like we didn’t work on it in practice at all yesterday, even though we spent quite a bit of time going over it,” Hamilton said. “We didn’t have a full meltdown. We held on and did the things we needed to at the end.”

Hamilton and the Cardinals survived New Richmond’s late surge, but turnovers continued to be an issue for Prescott against New Richmond. The Cardinals also struggled with turnovers in the 48-45 OT loss at home against Elk Mound in the season opener on Tuesday, Nov. 15. Hamilton spoke about his team’s frequent turnovers.

“We had 21 (turnovers) against Elk Mound,” Hamilton said. “Our goal (against New Richmond) was 12 and we might have tripled that. We need to understand that they’re going to pressure and we need to start using pass fakes. We’ve had just some careless, careless turnovers.”

Although Prescott struggled in the closing minutes of the second half, the Cardinals appeared to be dominant throughout stretches of the game. Junior forward Lila Posthuma finished with 14 points, 13 of which came in the first half as Prescott built a lead of more than a dozen.

Posthuma finished with 14 points, seven rebounds and seven assists, while also serving as the team’s anchor defensively. Senior Rhi Stutz tallied nine points and eight rebounds in the winning effort. But perhaps no player had a greater impact than freshman Violet Otto off the bench for the Cardinals.

Otto finished the game with 13 points, including a pair of three-pointers and three clutch free throws at the end of the game that helped Prescott finally seal the victory. Otto played a support role off the bench but was in Prescott’s closing lineup with the game on the line. Hamilton spoke about Otto’s performance.

“To have a freshman step up in that late moment and knock down free throws like that, to go 3/4 in that situation, I made sure to point that out in the locker room,” Hamilton said. “The biggest thing to me is who’s on the court when we need to win and she proved to me that she is going to finish the job and do everything she needs to do to win.”

With the addition of Otto off the bench and likely into the Cardinals’ closing lineup, it appears as if Prescott is as deep as any team in the Middle Border Conference this season. The Cardinals return the three top players from last season’s team in junior Lila Posthuma, and seniors Katrina Budworth and Izzy Matzek.

Stutz, Madisyn Rundquist and the aforementioned Otto play important support roles. Prescott’s depth was apparent based on how balanced the scoring was against New Richmond. The Cardinals had five players score nine or more points against the Tigers on Friday night. Hamilton spoke about having everyone on the roster contributing to the win.

“I think we’re fortunate. We’ve got a team where any girl could be the best scorer every night,” Hamilton said. “Just looking at tonight, that’s as even as I’ve ever seen a starting five go.”

Although Prescott displayed some positives and a lot of opportunity for growth against New Richmond, Hamilton was happy to leave the Tigers’ court with the first victory of the season and the first of his head coaching career. He spoke about a big sigh of relief once the game went final.

“I looked up at the scoreboard to make sure it said what it said,” Hamilton said with a little chuckle. “I took a deep breath and walked in (the locker room) and the first thing I said was ‘A win is a win.’ At the end of the day in basketball, it doesn’t matter if you win by 100 or by two. A win is a win. As disappointed as we are in what almost happened, we’re still happy with the win.”

Prescott’s victory improves the overall record to 1-1 for the 2022-23 season with Middle Border Conference play slated to begin on Tuesday, Nov. 22, on the road against the Somerset Spartans. That game is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.

Prescott senior guard Izzy Matzek scans the floor for a teammate during the game against New Richmond. Photo by Reagan Hoverman