By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
MARSHFIELD – Cale Zuiker scored 23 points, including 12 in the second quarter, and the Marshfield boys basketball team held off a late charge from Rhinelander to beat the Hodags 60-48 in a Wisconsin Valley Conference game Tuesday at the Marshfield High School Fieldhouse.
The Tigers bounced back from a heartbreaking four-point loss to Merrill on Monday with a big WVC victory. The win keeps Marshfield one game ahead of Wausau West in the conference standings with a showdown between the two teams coming Friday at West. West beat crosstown rival Wausau East 54-41 on Tuesday.
Marshfield never led against Merrill on Monday, and Tuesday the Tigers never trailed, improving their record to 12-4 overall and 7-1 in the Wisconsin Valley. Rhinelander falls to 4-13, 2-6 in the WVC.
Bouncing back from a hard-fought game in which the Tigers came up on the short end is easier said than done.
“It’s easy to stand here and say, ‘Last night is what it was, let’s put it away and bounce back tonight,'” Marshfield coach Craig Michaelis said. “It’s tough to do that. These are 16-, 17-, 18-year-old guys. It’s tough to sell out, give everything you’ve got last night and it turn out the way it did, and then turn around and dial it back up.
“For Rhinelander, they were fired up and ready to play. I was proud of the way our guys percevered, played for the 32 (minutes) and put it away at the end.”
Zuiker scored with 28 seconds left in the first quarter to put Marshfield up 9-6, then found a rhythm in the second quarter.
The 6-foot-8 junior hit a 3-pointer in the opening minute and later scored nine straight points for Marshfield in a 9-3 run that gave the Tigers a 26-16 lead. Marshfield led 30-21 at halftime.
“Our guys really did a good job finding me when I was open. I really have to give a lot of credit to those guys,” Zuiker said. “We started out kind of sloppy and then kind of brought it together. It’s one thing we’ve been working on – starting out better in the first quarter. We didn’t do it tonight, but I think we had a nice second quarter and kind of really set the tone.”
Rhinelander came out hot in the third quarter and quickly cut the Tigers’ lead to two. Dylan Smith had four of his 11 points in an 11-4 run that brought the Hodags to within a 34-32 deficit with 5:09 left.
Marshfield weathered the storm and back-to-back 3-pointers by Elliott Ashbeck and Zuiker closed the quarter and put the Tigers back up by eight at 45-37.
Rhinelander made one final push, twice cutting the Tigers’ lead to four in the fourth quarter, but Ryan Danczak, who scored 11 points, hit a 3-pointer and Zuiker had a dunk on a fastbreak to start an 11-3 run by Marshfield to close out the game.
“It certainly helped that we were shooting the ball reasonably well from the outside,” Michaelis said. “Cale got it going a little in the first half. We moved it around enough to get some looks inside.”
Marshfield beat West at home 45-43 in the third game of the season back on Dec. 18. With so much on the line Friday, Zuiker said he expects the game to go much the same way.
“I am expecting them to play like they always do, extremely hard and extremely physical,” Zuiker said. “I’m hoping we can match that. It will be a wild one, like it was the first time here.”
Tigers 60, Hodags 48
Rhinelander 6 15 16 11 – 48
Marshfield 9 21 15 15 – 60
RHINELANDER (48): Mike O’Melia 4-11 0-0 9, Chris Sykes 4-9 1-1 11, Andrew Young 0-2 0-0 0, Tyde Terzinski 1-2 1-1 3, Isaac Pierre 1-5 2-3 4, Taylor Fawley 2-6 2-4 6, A.J. Berrell 0-1 0-0 0, Troy White 1-6 0-4 2, Dylan Smith 5-6 0-0 11, Ryan Morris 0-0 2-2 2. FG: 18-42. FT: 8-15. 3-pointers: 4-17 (Sykes 2-5, Smith 1-2, O’Melia 1-4, Young 0-2, Pierre 0-3, White 0-1). Rebounds: 24 (White 5, Berrell 5). Turnovers: 10. Total fouls: 10. Fouled out: none. Record: 4-13, 2-6 Wisconsin Valley.
MARSHFIELD (60): Sully Luepke 2-4 2-4 6, Elliott Ashbeck 5-8 0-0 11, Ryan Danczak 4-12 1-2 11, Steve Boehning 0-0 0-0 0, Cale Zuiker 8-13 4-4 23, Ben Johnson 1-4 1-2 3, Antoine Brown-Hainz 0-0 0-0 0, Jake Scheppler 2-6 0-2 4, Dustin Thumann 1-2 0-0 2, Jon Bauer 0-0 0-0 0. FG: 23-49. FT: 8-14. 3-pointers: 6-13 (Zuiker 3-6, Danczak 2-4, Ashbeck 1-2, Luepke 0-1). Rebounds: 33 (Luepke 8, Ashbeck 6). Turnovers: 11. Total fouls: 10. Fouled out: none. Record: 12-4, 7-1 Wisconsin Valley.
See video highlights at allmarshfield.com
