Bulldogs On Win Streak; Claim Three Packerland VictoriesIssue Date: January 13, 2021 Bulldogs Sink Vikings on Lemke's Late Free Throws
It's always nice to win a close one.
The Peshtigo Bulldogs have been on the wrong end of some close losses, blowing some leads late in games after promising starts. But on Saturday, the Bulldogs got it done with a 60-59 win over Gibraltar, Peshtigo's first Packerland Conference win of the season.
The Bulldogs trailed 30-29 at the half, but they came out strong in the second half. With eight minutes to go, they led by nine points. That lead wouldn't hold, however, with it looking like it could be another heart-breaker for Peshtigo.
"That seems to be what we do. We play so good for the first half of a game and then we seem to forget what's going on. We had a nine point lead with eight minutes to go and then they fought back," Peshtigo coach Jason Boucher said.
With just 3.9 seconds on the clock, Landon Lemke drew a foul and calmly sunk both free throws to give his team a one-point lead.
"We rushed shots on offense and were a little lackluster on defense, but our kids played hard and that's the most important thing for our team right now is we play so hard and scrap so hard. I'm just happy for the guys that the feeling in that locker room switched a little bit tonight," Boucher said.
Lemke's final two free throws were only Peshtigo's fifth and sixth of the game, but they were all the team needed.
"Landon's free throws at the end were obviously big," Boucher said. "We have to do a better job of getting to the free throw line during the game but those free throws at the end were obviously the two that we needed."
Lemke led the team with 16 points on 6-of-11 shooting. He shot five of the team's six free throws, making three.
Adam Bauman had 11 points on 4-of-10 shooting, Christian Boyle went 3-for-6 for nine points and Luke McMahon was 4-for-5 for eight points.
In the end, it was just enough
"It always feels good when you win a close game," Boucher said. "We've had a couple of them this year that ended up going the other way and we lost a couple early in the season by one or two points. It feels really good to finally get a close game win."
Lena Goes Wild on Tigerton
The Lena Wildcats were too much for the Tigerton boys to handle last Saturday evening when they took on the Wildcats in Lena for a non-conference showdown that saw the Wildcats the winners 64-38.
The crushing win saw the Wildcats fire in 36 first half points while clamping down on defense to hold Tigerton to 12 points.
Another 28 point over the second half by the Wildcats would be too much for Tigerton to overcome as they fired in 26 points of their own over the closing frame.
Lena's Max Beyer had a whale of a game with 24 points to his name. Sidney Sylvester chipped in in to the effort while Madson Simonson added eight to the total.
Tigerton was led by Kaeden Miller with 14 points and Zeke Griepentroy with eight.
Lena Survives Close Match With Gillett
The Lena Wildcats and Gillett Tiger battled tooth and nail Thursday evening in Lena, battling the whole way through for a 49-45 final readout in favor of the Lena Wildcats.
The close scoring was keyed in by Lena's Max beyer and Gillett's Ben Matczak who both posted some pretty good numbers over the first half. Beyer shot for 11 points while Matczak added up a triple helping of three pointers.
At the half the Wildcats were behind 23-19 but a superlative second half effort from the Wildcats, pushed Lena to the lead of four points by games end. The second half scoring saw the Wildcats take that edge with a 30 point effort while the Tigers feel short with their 22 points.
Lena was led by Beyer with 28 points and Jacob Belongia with nine points. Logan Shallow added six to the final tally.
Gillett was led by Aiden Patza with 11 points and Austin VandeCorut with 10 points. Aydin Franti also added up 10 points.
Crivitz Win Blow Out Over STAA
The Crivitz Wolverines were no match for the St. Thomas Aquinas Cavaliers Friday night in Crivitz as the Wolverines took the 66-26 victory.
Crivitz easily worked their way to a pretty sizable lead over the opening minutes as the Cavvies struggled to keep up with Crivitz's 33 point first half effort. STAA ended the first half with 19 points. Another 13 second half points would not be near enough to overcome the Wolverines lead which was extended by an additional 33 points over the second half.
STAA was led by Ethan Braley with 13 points and Ethan Russell with five points.
Crivitz's Alec Grandaw added up18 points while Tegan Werner got 12 points.
Kewaunee Sets Down Oconto
The Kewaunee Storm provide to be too much for the Oconto Blue Devils Saturday evening in Oconto as the Blue Devils fell behind in a 71-61 final readout.
The loss saw Oconto give up a 36-32 first half lead, falling behind a 39-25 second half differential.
Leading the way for thew Blue Devils was Caleb Moe with 26 points and Josh Woller with 11 points. William Sherman added up 10 on the night.
Kewaunee was led by Sawyer Pribek with 18 points and Alex Rohr with 12 points.
Wausaukee Survives Niagara by One Point
The Wausaukee Rangers had to hang onto thier lead with an iron grip last Tuesday night in Niagara as the Badgers staged a second half comeback that saw them come one point from the lead but falling 57-56.
Wausaukee was able to hold the lead going into the intermission 27-25 but saw the Badgers stage a late game comeback to narrow the lead within one. Over that second half the Badgers shot for 31 points while stopping the Rangers at 30.
For the Rangers Brenden Versaskas was the nights best with 26 points. Teammate Danny Suennen pitched in nine to the effort while Corey Boesen added seven.
Niagara was led by Logan Weber with 23 points and Ed Swanson with 12 points.
Truckers Roll Over Marines With Solid Offensive Play
It just wasn't Marinette's night Thursday against Clintonville.
The Marines fell 70-42, struggling from the field while allowing Clintonville to succeed on the offensive end.
By halftime, Marinette had just 17 points to Clintonville's 35. Marinette shot 29% from the field as a team and only made two of their 14 attempted shots from deep.
Marinette's Asaia Polazzo scored 10 points on 3-of-7 shooting to lead Marinette. Jake Sommerfeldt's seven points on 2-of-12 shooting (1-for-6 three pointers) were second on the team and Keegan Polomis shot 3-for-8 for six points.
Marinette also grabbed just 15 rebounds as a team in the game and turned the ball over 13 times. Clintonville grabbed 33 rebounds in the game.
The Truckers also shot 54% from the field and 6-for-15 (40%) from downtown.
Bulldogs Come From Behind to Beat Blazers
Don't look now, but the Peshtigo Bulldogs are on a roll, and they're winning in different ways.
On Monday, it was a come-from-behind win over NEW Lutheran behind eight minutes of gutsy defense to extend Peshtigo's winning streak to five.
With eight minutes to play, Peshtigo trailed 47-42. That's when coach Jason Boucher switched defenses.
The Bulldogs had been playing a press zone, but they pulled back into a straight man-to-man defense.
"I think that really sparked us on defense," Boucher said.
That spark held up for eight minutes, during which NEW scored just two points to finish the game at 61-49.
"That's total effort and guts by our guys tonight. I'm proud of the way they fought back and battled on the defensive end," Boucher said.
Peshtigo's defense held NEW to 19-of-61 shooting from the field (3-for-24 from three).
Peshtigo went 21-for-47 from the field (44%), led by a 9-for-18 game from Landon Lemke, who had arguably his best offensive game as a Bulldog, scoring 27 points. He made all seven of his free throws as well.
Boucher said coaches had been harping on Lemke to get to the hole and score in the paint instead of settling for jumpers. It obviously paid off on Monday.
Adam Bauman scored 15 points on 6-of-11 shooting.
In addition to those two top scorers, Peshtigo's bench played well once again.
"That's been a huge bonus for us this year. When you have 10 or 11 guys that are ready to go at all times, it's not only fun to coach, it's fun to watch," Boucher said. "Those bench guys, it doesn't matter if they start, it doesn't matter if they play a couple minutes, they go in and give 100% and that's all we can ask as coaches."
Mauz Salem had seven points and five rebounds with three assists, Koby Cuyer had six points and Mason Doberstein didn't score, but led the team with four assists. Collin Engman had nine rebounds to lead Peshtigo on the boards.
Peshtigo out-rebounded NEW 32-18.
NEW's Elijah Lange had 13 points and Elijah Meerstein had 12.
Marines Can't Corral Mustangs, Fall 70-51 in NEC Action
Marinette fell 70-51 at the hands of Little Chute on Tuesday, with short lapses in the Marines' level of play the big difference.
Things were hotly contested early, with the Marines holding a 20-19 lead after an Asaia Polazzo basket.
That would be Marinette's last lead of the game, however, as the Mustangs would race out to a 32-22 lead by the half with a 13-3 run punctuated by an 8-0 run to end the half.
Little Chute then made up for lost time in half number two. With the lead at 38-27, Little Chute went on another run, this time a 15-6 run to make it 53-33. It didn't get much closer than that, with the lead shrinking to 15 at its lowest for the remainder of the game.
"I thought overall there were a lot of positives. I think the biggest takeaway we had in the locker room afterwards was we played really good basketball for about 28 minutes tonight and that might have been some of the best basketball we played, but against a really good team like that, when you have a two or three minute lull in there, they're going to take advantage of it," Marinette coach Matt Joost said. "We talked about it going into halftime and that last two minutes of the half kind of killed us. It should have been five or less at half and I think it's a different mindset at that point for both teams, but overall, the effort was there tonight, we hung with them as best we could."
The difference in the game, Joost said, was that whenever Marinette started to make any sort of run, the Mustangs got a couple of buckets to quell the Marine momentum.
One bright spot for Marinette was Sam Sommerfeldt. The freshman hit five 3-pointers and all four of his free throws to lead Marinette in scoring with 18 points.
Joost said it was "by far his best game so far," but it wasn't a surprise to the Marinette coaching staff.
"None of us on this team are surprised he led us in scoring tonight," Joost said. "We knew that could definitely happen the way he can shoot and his teammates did a really good job of finding him when they needed to and he shot it with confidence."
Sommerfeldt is making progress, Joost said, adding that he wants to see more of Tuesday's Sommerfeldt going forward.
Jake Sommerfeldt had 10 points for Marinette.
Despite scoring 70 points, only one Mustang finished with double-digit points, with Tate Huss scoring 20 to lead the way.
No other Mustang had more than seven, so it was definitely a balanced offensive attack.
"The other guys on their team stepped up," Joost said. "And that's why they're toward the top of our league right now"¦"
Peshtigo's Solid Defense Leads to Win Over Bonduel
The Peshtigo Bulldogs only scored 41 points against Bonduel on Thursday, but their relatively quiet offensive night didn't matter, as their defense propelled them to a 41-33 win.
The Bulldogs held Bonduel to 18% shooting, as the Bears made just nine of their 50 attempted shots in the game and five of their 26 attempted shots from deep.
"Our kids play hard. That was the hardest they've played on defense all year and it showed," Peshtigo coach Jason Boucher said.
The Bulldogs ran a press in the game, falling back into a zone defense, which worked well in the game, despite the fact that Boucher said the team worked on it for just about 15 minutes in practice the day before.
Boucher said he was proud of his players and added that the defense "shows teams something different."
Additionally, Peshtigo rebounded well out of the zone, finding a man and boxing out throughout the game. The Bulldogs grabbed 51 rebounds to Bonduel's 22.
Center Collin Engman led Peshtigo with 12 rebounds. He scored only two points, but he played his usual solid defense in the paint for Peshtigo.
Another player that Boucher pointed out was freshman Will McMahon. He didn't stuff the stat sheet, scoring two points with four rebounds and a steal, but he has been a steady presence for the Bulldogs despite his young age.
"He might not have scored many points tonight, but Will McMahon, the freshman, really calmed us down actually on offense," Boucher said. "He took care of the basketball, always in the right spots on defense and he was a big bright spot for us tonight."
Boucher said McMahon has a high basketball IQ, is gaining the coaches' trust and will be earning more minutes going forward.
Adam Bauman led Peshtigo with 11 points. Mason Doberstein had nine and Landon Lemke had seven.
Brett Margelofsky led Bonduel with 11 points and Carson Robaidek had 10.
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