
Marines Get Into Win Column; Defeat Panthers 69-60Issue Date: January 6, 2021 Marinette Boys Post First Win Of Season Over Oconto Falls
The Marinette Marine boys were able to get into the win column last Tuesday in Marintte, taking down the Oconto Falls Panthers by way of a close 69-60 final verdict.
"We had a lot of losses in a row," said Marinette head coach Matt Joost. "All of last year and the start of this year. I was thrilled to get the victory. Things got ugly towards the end. But what i saw tonight was my team finding a way to win instead of finding a way to lose."
Marinette did let the Panthers back in it a bit over the second but the first half was not the case as they edged the Panthers in the opening minutes 32-27.
Over the closing minutes the Panthers were able to make some ground with their 33 point readout. But a tough Marinette crew kept the scores coming in steadily, topping the Panthers with their 37 second half points.
Oconto Falls' Gelmen posted a game high 22 points for his Panthers while Raddatz got 17.Sager added eight to the tally.
Marinette was led by the evenings top performer Asia Polazzo with 30 points. Sommerfeld got 14 points while Polomis chipped in nine to the effort.
"We ran our spread very well toward the end," said Joost. "We were mentally strong tonight. Im proud of the boys and it was a win we needed. Towards the end we did a lot better with our gap help defense. If we can improve on that I think we can start getting more wins."
Blue Devils Cage Panthers in Oconto County Rivalry Game
The Oconto Blue Devils left no doubt in an 86-47 rivalry win over Oconto Falls on Wednesday, Dec. 30.
Oconto's first five and a half minutes saw the Blue Devils jump out to a 12-2 lead, with five different Blue Devils. That was a staple for Oconto in the game, as nine players scored, with three in double figures and eight with at least seven points.
"We've had really good balance this year. I don't even know who was high tonight," Blue Devils coach John Moe said. "A number of games we've had three or four people in double figures. That's what we shoot for is to get multiple people with double-figure points."
It was Josh Woller who finished with a game-high 19. It was Woller who stretched Oconto's lead to 20 for the first time with a fast break bucket to make it 40-20 just before the half. The Blue Devils took a 40-23 lead into the break.
From that point, the Panthers never found their way back into the game, as the lead was never smaller than that 17-point deficit in the second half. With 12:24 left in the first half, Oconto's Kadin Baxter hit a three to extend the lead to 60-31.
Baxter would finish with nine in the game, adding six rebounds and three assists. Oconto had 28 assists on 35 field goals.
Woller's 19 points came on 8-for-10 shooting with three rebounds, five assists and two blocks. Josh Delzer went 4-for-6 with four rebounds to score 12 points and Logan Allan was 5-for-8 for 11 points.
Caleb Moe scored seven points with nine rebounds. William Sherman scored eight points with five assists, christian Koch had eight points with seven rebounds and Luke Krueger had eight points with six rebounds.
The win gives Oconto bragging rights over Oconto Falls, a rivalry that still means something for players and community members, coach Moe said.
"The kids have known each other from Oconto Falls, some of the kids have played together over the summers on different teams and stuff, so it can be a chippy rivalry," Moe said. "I was telling the boys, "those of you that had fathers that grew up around this area, that's the game. That's their war stories they tell,' and the boys have heard it, so it's important to the kids, so we focused on that it was an important game."
For the Panthers, five players scored in the game. Braden Uelman had 17 points, Isaac Raddatz had 15 points and Noah Hirst scored 10 points.
Three Lakes Beats Wausaukee
The Three Lakes boys bounced the Wausaukee Rangers last week in a match that saw the Rangers struggle to find a rhythm 78-26.
It was pretty much all Three Lakes all the way with the Three Lakes boys shooting the lights out over the first half 49-14 and continuing to hold the ground they gained over the second half 29-12.
Wausaukee was led by Brenden Versaskas with 10 points while Dominick Brunette and Peyton Betts both posted five points.
Three Lakes' Ashton Maney posted 21 points to lead all scorers. Jared Kaufman also scored a hefty amount with 15 points. Cole Melton got 10 points while Luke Hoban got 10 points.
Coleman Falls in Close Match with Reedsville
The Coleman Cougars took on the boys from Reedsville last week and were unable to overcome a six point deficit late in the game to fall 56-50.
Coleman may not have taken the win, but they did keep it interesting throughout. After the first half of play the Cougars were in control by one bucket 33-31.
That small lead quickly evaporated over the second half with Reedsville adjusting for the 25-17 second half differential.
That comeback in the second proved to be too much for the Cougars to recover from.
Leading the way for the Cougars was Noah Nosgovitz with 16 points. Teammates Cayden Bintz and Tieg Sadowski both fired in 10 points each.
Reedsville added up their win thanks to a hefty 24 point total from Brennen Dvorachek. Owen Behnke got 12 while John Tim added up eight.
Valley Christian Gets Win Over Wausaukee
The Wausaukee Rangers traveled to Lena Thursday night for the Lena Holiday tournament which saw them fall in the consolation round to the Valley Christian boys 56-49.
The close loss was very close throughout with the Valley Chrtisan squad overcoming a 25-23 first half deficit with a 33-24 second half readout.
The great second half spelled doom for the Rangers who lost their grip as time expired.
Leading the way for the Rangers was Danny Suennen with 18 points and Corey Boesen with 16 points. Brenden Versaskas added up seven on the night.
Valley Christian was led by Elijah Wade with 20 points and Alexander Giannopoulos with 16 points. Will Kehoe added seven to the tally.
Stockbridge Slams Lena in Holiday Tourney
The Stockbridge boys bagged themselves a Lena Holiday Tournament win last Thursday when they fired off a 67-32 decider over the Lena Wildcats.
It wasn't much of a final showdown as the Stockbridge squad very quickly shot their way to a 32-11 first half lead. That lead was chipped away at over the second half by the Wildcats who managed to muster a 21 point effort. But unfortunately for the Wildcats Stockbridge didn't slow down, posting another 35 points to close the match.
By games end Stockbridge's Aaron Bunnell had amassed a game high 20 points. Teammates Jake Willett and Zack Daun both got 10 points each.
Lena was led by Max Beyer and Logan Shallow who both added up seven points each. Sidney Sylvester finished with six points.
Coleman Annihilates Gillett
There was no match for the Coleman Cougars last week when they took on the Gillett Tiger boys, defeating the Tigers without issue 79-8.
The absolute blowout saw the Cougars fired their way to a 50-5 first half lead while holding the Tigers at three second half points.
Coleman's Noah Nosgovitz got 23 points to lead all scorers on the night. Tieg Sadwoski added up 15 points while Cayden Bintz chipped in 13 to the effort.
Gillett was led by Evan Peterson with five points and Ben Matczak with three.
Crivitz Outlasts Three Lakes
The Crivitz Wolverines were quite a match for the Three Lakes boys, who found themselves on the wrong end of a furious attack by the Wolverines. After the final buzzer crivitz had won 67-51.
The Wolverines were hard to catch up with in the Monday night match up in Crivitz. Crivitz quickly shot their way to a lead which they held till the intermission 33-24. That lead was blessed over the second half but not by a whole lot as the Wolverines fired in another 34 points to the Three Lake boys' 27.
At games end the Wolverines' Alec Grandaw had piled up a game high 19 points. Eain Baumann posted 13 points. Dillon Gehmn posted nine on the night.
Three Lakes was led by Sam Eppler with 16 points and Logan Erikson with 10 points.
Bulldogs Hold Off Wolverines in Hoops Rematch
The Peshtigo Bulldogs and Crivitz Wolverines met again Tuesday for the second time in a week, and for most of the game, it looked like the teams were headed for a carbon copy of the first matchup - a double digit Bulldogs win.
Down by double digits late in the game, the Wolverines threw on a 1-3-1 half court trap to try and disrupt the Bulldogs. It worked.
"Sometimes you just try something and it ends up working a lot better than you thought it would," Crivitz coach Jeff Baumann said. "It ended up taking Peshtigo out of their game for six or seven minutes to let us back in it a little bit."
Peshtigo coach Jason Boucher said his team was up by 16 with four and a half minutes to go. It could have come down to the free throw line, where Peshtigo went 13-for-22. With time dwindling, Peshtigo twice got its own rebound on a missed free throw to keep the ball out of Wolverine hands and help seal the win.
"Free throws, one of these times, are going to end up killing us. We've got to do a better job of making free throws," Boucher said.
Peshtigo's rebounding was an advantage, as the Bulldogs grabbed 30 rebounds to the Wolverines' 18. That wasn't quite as wide a gap as when the teams met on Dec. 28, when Peshtigo out-rebounded Crivitz 46-16 in a 61-40 win.
"We just played a lot more aggressively. We were very tentative and timid and scared and then we got pummeled on the boards the first time around. This time, we still got out-rebounded if I'm not mistaken, but those two free throws at the end of the game, we had the guy we wanted and he got the miss but we didn't rebound it," Baumann said. "The rebounding still is an issue, but I think intensity was much better for us. We made some shots, I think intensity and just trying. We've got a young team and we're going to make a lot of strides, but we've just got to get better. I think it's more intensity than anything else."
Peshtigo was led by 15 points on 5-of-8 shooting (3-6 from deep) from Koby Cuyler, who also got three steals in the game.
"For the fourth time in six games now, seven games now, we came out not ready to play. Big spark for us in the second half was Koby Cuyler," Boucher said. "He came in ready to play and I think everybody fed off his energy, not only just because he hit a couple threes to keep us going, his defensive pressure and his defensive hustle really got everybody going. We've just got to learn how to sustain that for 36 minutes instead of 32 again and letting the last four minutes get away from us."
Landon Lemke shot 3-for-10 and finished with 14 points after making all six of his free throws, Mauz Salem went 4-for-8 for 12 points but missed eight of his 11 free throw attempts and Adam Bauman went 5-for-9 from the field for 11 points.
Lemke led the way with eight rebounds and Bauman got seven boards.
For Crivitz, Eian Baumann played through injury to finish with 22 points on 5-of-13 shooting (12-13 at the free throw line) and Sean Christiansen scored 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting. Seth Sellen (4-for-9 shooting, 2-2, free throws) and Tegan Werner (2-for-13 shooting, 6-9 free throws) scored 10 apiece.

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