Photo by Travis Rosenau: Wabasso’s Audrey Carlson draws a foul during a Tomahawk Division girls basketball game at Springfield High School on Monday night.

SPRINGFIELD — A rough night of turnovers and cold shooting was too much for the Wabasso Rabbits to overcome as the Springfield Tigers rolled to a 64-37 win in a Tomahawk Division girls basketball game Monday night.

The Rabbits turned the ball over 34 times and shot 12 of 55 from the floor. Many of their turnovers came in the first half when the Tigers applied a press to create an early conundrum offensively for the Rabbits.

Rabbits head coach Paige Richert said after the team’s tough 2024-25 season where they finished 1-26, she expects teams to come out aggressively on defense and try to create turnovers with the press.

“Teams will always try to bully us,” Richert said. “We weren’t the best of the best last year, so they’re going to bully us all throughout until we can be confident and easily break it and when we do that, nobody’s going to bully us.”

The Rabbits were led by Ava Samyn and Cassie Bliss, who each had 8 points and eight rebounds. Bliss added three steals, while Elizabeth Morin had 6 points, Kayleigha Johnson and Audrey Johson each had 5 points and Sara Carlson had three assists and three steals.

The Tigers shot 27 of 68 from the floor and had 18 turnovers.

They were led by Jada Reese’s 17 points, while posts Olivia Milbrath and Kendall Krueger had 16 points and 10 points, respectively.

After buckets from Milbrath and Reese had the Tigers on the board first, Samyn dropped in the first point for Wabasso on a free throw. As the Tigers began creating turnovers with their full-court press, it led to an 8-0 run and 12-1 lead before a 3 by Samyn ended it and made it a 12-4 game.

The Tigers slowly added to their lead, going up 22-5 on a free throw from Ayla Rothmeier to cap off a 10-0 run.

After free throws by Samyn with 1:13 left in the opening half, Reese scored on a layup and added two free throws to give the Tigers a 33-14 halftime lead.

The Rabbits kept the deficit around 20 points for much of the second half until a jumper by Makay Winkelmann had the Tigers up 49-24. Bliss answered with a layup and a free throw by Carlson had the Rabbits down 49-27.

A corner 3 by Reese moments later again had the Tigers up 25, 56-31, and the Tigers took their largest lead of the night with the final basket of the game, a bucket in the paint by Molly Jacobs.

Despite the turnover issues, Richert was happy with how her team’s defense responded, especially in the second half.

“Our defense was a lot better than the first two games even, so that was our big focus tonight was playing lockdown defense and the offense will come,” Richert said. “We stayed out of running time and we couldn’t say that a whole lot last year, so it’s a small, little victory for us.”

Wabasso (0-3, 0-1) is at Tracy-Milroy-Balaton for a Tuesday night game in Tracy.