Madison Bests Brewcity, 158-130
MADISON, WI -- With the North Central rankings in disarray, Milwaukee’s Brewcity Bruisers came into Madison last Saturday night with high hopes of erasing a winless record against their in-state rivals. It was not to be. Despite Brewcity playing the cleaner game, all the big power jam points went Madison’s way for the 158-130 final.
The game was Madison's first win over a NC top-ten team for over a year (that win was also over Brewcity, in May 2011). Madison improved to 3-6 on the year as Brewcity dropped to 1-5, with their only win a narrow 2 pointer over current #12NC Bleeding Heartland.
Brewcity grabbed the bout’s first five leads and a 15-0 advantage, but Hazed and Confused turned it all around for Madison with a 24-4 power jam in jam number six. The home side slowly widened the lead on give and take play until Mouse broke open a 55-42 score on a 23-0 turn with three and half minutes left in the half. The score at intermission was 83-48 favoring Madison.
Second half points did not come easily for Brewcity. Despite taking more leads than the hosts, Brewcity could only narrow the gap two to three points at a time. A jammer penalty on Mouse late in a two-minute jam allowed Brewcity to reset twice in the power jam situation for a 12-0 run, but the gap was still a formidable 109-77.
Still, Brewcity kept coming, and the big bodies of Milwaukee’s defense – Servin Justice, Carabunga, Fidela Castrate and The Other White Meat – pounded away on Madison’s jammers until the gap closed to 109-92 with a little more than 10 minutes left to play. Once again, it was Mouse on a power jam who widened the gap to 128-94.
A subsequent pair of jammer penalties on Madison gave Brewcity their only two double-digit scores of the night, and the visitors closed the gap to just 15 points, 136-121, with less than three minutes to go. One more time it was Mouse with the big points for Madison with 13 behind a re-invigorated Dairyland Dolls defense. With the score 149-121 at the final jam, Milwaukee’s EmFatale grabbed lead status, but the 9-9 effort against Mack the Knife changed only the final total, as Madison won 158-130.
Brewcity dominated in leads won, 25-14. Madison lost two of those leads to penalties while Brewcity lost none. Jammer trips to the box were 4-6 in Madison’s favor, and they took full advantage of their power jam opportunities with a 90-55 scoring edge, almost the final margin. With the power jam opportunities falling on her turn, Mouse was the leading scorer for the game with 82 points. Zotay led Brewcity’s scoring effort with 48 points.
Brewcity is right back in action next weekend against Nashville (currently #3SC WFTDA pending imminent rankings), while Madison next takes on Steel City (#17 DNN, currently #4E WFTDA) on August 18.
