This story is sponsored by Total Electric
By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
AUBURNDALE – In order to have a chance at a Marawood Conference South Division title, the Auburndale boys basketball team first had to take care of business against a strong Edgar team, and it had its hands full.
Following a first half that saw the Eagles turn the ball over nine times and the game tied at 25-25, Auburndale buckled down defensively, cut down on the miscues and pulled away late for a 53-45 victory on Friday night at Auburndale High School.
With the win, Auburndale improves to 20-2 overall and 13-1 in the Marawood South, keeping pace with first-place Marathon (21-1, 14-0 Marawood South). Auburndale will host Stratford on Monday before playing at Marathon in its final regular season game on Thursday. Click here to view the Marawood South boys basketball standings
“We talked a lot about toughness at halftime,” Auburndale coach Chad Weinfurter said. “Edgar’s a tough team, physical team, talented team and we just had too many turnovers. Offensively, we haven’t been playing very well and shooting it well, but our defense and our rebounding, and except for the first half tonight, we’ve been taking care of the ball well to give ourselves a chance.
“There have been games we easily could have lost, where we didn’t play well but we still got wins. It felt like that again tonight against a really good opponent.”
Auburndale never trailed in the first half, but Edgar was able to hang around, tying the game twice before the Eagles used a 7-1 run to take a 19-13 lead. Thomas Aue scored five points in the run.
Evan Scholl had a pair of baskets to push Auburndale’s lead to 25-18, but the Eagles wouldn’t score in the final 2:30 of the half and Edgar closed on a 7-0 run to tie the game at 25-25. Leyton Schuett had a pair of baskets to bring the Wildcats even heading into the second half.
Refocused after the break, Auburndale opened by scoring eight of the first 10 points, but again Edgar had an answer.
A basket by Brett Baumgartner off an offensive rebound and a fastbreak layup from Teegan Streit brought the Wildcats back to within one at 35-34 with 11 minutes left.
Auburndale quickly responded as Caden Weinfurter, Aue and Kaden Anderson scored to push the Eagles’ lead to 41-35.
Edgar crawled back to within three at 45-42, but made only one basket in the final 4½ minutes and Auburndale was able to close the game at the free throw line. The Eagles made 8 of 11 at the line over the last 2:49 and finished 15-for-24 from the stripe. Edgar missed nine of its 14 attempts.
Blake Raab finished with 13 points, Scholl added 12, and Aue 11 in the win for the Eagles.
Baumgartner topped Edgar (17-5, 10-4 Marawood South) with 13 points, but was just 5-for-18 from the field as Auburndale made it tough of the Wildcats’ offense inside.
“Our goal is to keep people out of the lane, but sometimes other guys are good getting in there and you have to learn how to play defense around the rim,” Chad Weinfurter said. “I think we’re getting better at that. Thomas (Aue) and Cade (Weinfurter) do a nice job when they are in the right position. Kaden (Anderson) does a nice job, and Evan (Scholl) and Blake (Raab) are athletic. I thought Mason Meissner gave us some really good minutes in there too guarding Baumgartner when our other guys needed a break.”
The WIAA playoff brackets will be announced Sunday before teams finish out their regular-season schedules next week.
Eagles 53, Wildcats 45
Edgar 25 20 – 45
Auburndale 25 28 – 53
EDGAR (45): Leyton Schuett 2-5 0-2 4, Tucker Streit 0-0 1-2 1, Kohlbe Weisenberger 0-0 0-0 0, Marcus Huehnerfuss 0-1 0-0 0, Brett Baumgartner 5-18 3-5 13, Karter Butt 4-8 0-0 10, Preston Dahlke 4-7 1-3 9, Gavin Mauer 0-1 0-0 0, Teegan Streit 4-12 0-2 8. FG: 19-52. FT: 5-14. 3-pointers: 2-14 (Butt 2-4, Huehnerfuss 0-1, Mauer 0-1, Schuett 0-2, Baumgartner 0-2, Te. Streit 0-4). Rebounds: 24 (Baumgartner 7). Turnovers: 5. Fouls: 18. Fouled out: none. Record: 17-5, 10-4 Marawood Conference South Division.
AUBURNDALE (53): Peyton Weinfurter 0-0 0-0 0, Aden Cherney 0-1 3-4 3, Mason Meissner 0-0 0-0 0, Blake Raab 6-8 0-1 13, Kaden Anderson 2-5 4-9 8, Evan Scholl 4-9 3-4 12, Thomas Aue 4-6 3-4 11, Caden Weinfurter 2-7 2-2 6. FG: 18-36. FT: 15-24. 3-pointers: 2-12 (Raab 1-3, Scholl 1-4, Anderson 0-1, Cherney 0-1, C. Weinfurter 0-3). Rebounds: 30 (Aue 8). Turnovers: 12. Fouls: 13. Fouled out: none. Record: 20-2, 13-1 Marawood Conference South Division.