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By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
Click here for the full interview with Marshfield coach Craig Michaelis
Video highlights available at allmarshfield.com
MARSHFIELD – It was one of those nights for Marshfield junior Elliot Ashbeck.
Ashbeck missed the first shot he took, but from then on the Tigers’ guard was unstoppable. Ashbeck hit eight of his next nine shots, including all four of his 3-pointers, and finished with 26 points to lead the Marshfield boys basketball team to a 67-44 win over Wausau West on Tuesday night at the Marshfield High School Fieldhouse.
Ashbeck scored 13 points in the second quarter as Marshfield pushed its lead from 11-6 to 29-17 by halftime. West never got closer than nine in the second half.
“Some nights they go down, some nights they don’t,” Ashbeck said. “I got a few to go down early. Cale (Zuiker) played a good game, Dustin (Thumann) played a real good game, and Ian (Padron). Especially on defense, we played a triangle-and-two and we wore out their two best guys. They didn’t have the energy on the defensive end and that helped us get some easier shots.”
The win is just what the doctor ordered for the Tigers, who lost their previous two games to fall 2½ games out of the lead in the Wisconsin Valley Conference. Ashbeck said Marshfield played better Tuesday, perhaps because of the pressure lifted from effectively being out of the conference title race.
“I think we relaxed a little bit, finally,” Ashbeck said. “I think some of the pressure might have gotten to us. We had a lot of expectations coming in. Maybe a few of the goals we had are gone, but the main ones are there for us. We kind of had to refocus and get back on track for what we want to do.”
Marshfield (13-3, 5-3 WVC) made 22 of 40 shots from the field and were most prolific from deep, making eight of 11 3-point attempts.
The Tigers made all three of their 3-point attempts in the third quarter as they opened up their lead to 46-27. Ashbeck scored seven more points in the fourth as Marshfield used an 8-2 run to go ahead by 25.
“We played a nice game tonight, a nice team game, shared the ball well and played good defense,” Marshfield coach Craig Michaelis said. “They’ve got two really nice players in (Jordan) Penn and (Travis) Schertz and you’ve got to know where they are all the time.
“We came out and shot the ball well early and did enough defensively to jump out to a big enough lead.”
Zuiker added 15 points, Padron had 11 and Thumann seven as eight different Tigers scored.
Marshfield plays at Stevens Point on Friday. The Panthers are tied for second place in the Valley with Marshfield.
Tigers 67, Warriors 44
Wausau West 6 11 12 15 – 44
Marshfield 11 18 17 21 – 67
WAUSAU WEST (44): Zach Rusch 0-5 0-0 0, Zak Knab 0-2 0-0 0, Travis Schertz 8-14 4-5 21, Taylor Thompson 1-5 2-3 4, Brad Utegaard 2-5 0-0 4, Jordan Huehnerfuss 0-1 0-0 0, Chris Bandura 1-1 1-1 3, Evan Mayer 2-5 0-2 4, Jordan Penn 4-9 0-0 8, Steve Morel 0-0 0-0 0, Jacob Lindmeier 0-3 0-0 0. FG: 18-50. FT: 7-11. 3-pointers: 1-16 (Schertz 1-2, Huehnerfuss 0-1, Knab 0-2, Thompson 0-3, Utegaard 0-3, Rusch 0-5). Rebounds: 23 (Lindmeier 5, Schertz 4). Turnovers: 7. Total fouls: 14. Fouled out: none. Record: 9-8, 2-6 Wisconsin Valley Conference.
MARSHFIELD (67): Josh Hennes 0-0 0-0 0, Brody Erickson 0-2 0-0 0, Ian Padron 4-8 2-3 11, Elliot Ashbeck 8-10 6-8 26, Sean Koran 1-1 0-0 3, Adam Voss 0-0 2-2 2, Cale Zuiker 5-11 4-4 15, Brandon Brown 0-1 1-2 1, Chris Stemen 0-0 0-0 0, Dustin Thumann 3-4 0-0 7, Alex Arendt 0-0 0-0 0, Jon Bauer 1-3 0-0 2. FG: 22-40. FT: 15-19. 3-pointers: 8-11 (Ashbeck 4-4, Zuiker 1-4, Thumann 1-1, Padron 1-1, Koran 1-1). Rebounds: 25 (Ashbeck 5, Bauer 4). Turnovers: 6. Total fouls: 13. Fouled out: none. Record: 13-3, 5-3 Wisconsin Valley Conference.