She sets South record for rebounds

MADDIE OGNACEVIC (4) recently set South’s rebounding record with 21 in one game. – Photo by Chris Horen

Sheboygan South’s Maddie Ognacevic broke her school’s girls basketball rebounding record Jan. 15 when she grabbed 21 of them.

“I never thought I would break it,” the junior said. “I knew I had a lot of rebounds in the game, but I had no idea that it was that high.”

Amy Selk’s record of 18 stood since 2007, and coach Garrett Renzelmann sensed she was collecting more than usual that game.

“She seemed to be the one clearing the boards for us on both ends of the floor,” he said. “In the moment, you never really quite know how many it necessarily was. We were in a close game, too, so you’re kind of focused on one possession at a time.”

So Renzelmann looked at both the box score and the game film the next morning.

“All of a sudden I noticed 21 rebounds; holy cow, that’s a lot,” he said.

The coach texted the 5-foot-10 Ognacevic to tell her the news.

“I was pretty surprised and excited about it,” said Ognacevic, who helped matters by getting six offensive rebounds. “If I’m ever on the perimeter, I usually try and like sprint to the lane as soon as the shots off on offense.

“And then on defense, I try to spin around my defender usually to try and get rebounds.”

Entering the weekend, Ognacevic ranked fifth in the state with an average of 13.8 rebounds per game, according to WisSports.net.

Last year her average was 7.6 after getting 2.9 as a freshman.

“She’s always been an exceptional offensive rebounder,” Renzelmann said. “And this year, we’ve had to rely on her to be that defensive rebounder a bit more than in the past. … Now, she’s like our main rebounder and who we rely on a lot for those. “She’s kind of stepped into that role and embraced it, and really taken off. If a shot goes up and she’s around the ball, I expect her to come down with it every single time. It’s a nice luxury to have as a coach when you have a player on your team that’s in the vicinity of a loose ball on a missed shot and you expect them to come away with it, and more often than not they do.

“Even when we’ve been playing top teams that we’re maybe a little undersized against, she’s still finding ways to kind of outwork them for rebounds. I think it’s a little bit of a source of pride for her. She wants to take on that responsibility for our team.”

Ognacevic is also scoring more this season, as she had her varsity-best 14 points the game before she set the record.

“I think this year I’m putting up a lot more shots than I was last year,” she said. “And I’m not as timid as I used to be, and I think this year I’m getting a lot more offensive rebounds as well, which is helping me get to the line more, too, to make some free throws.”