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By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
AUBURNDALE – The normally efficient Auburndale offense was off on Friday night, but the Apaches made up for it defensively and scored enough to beat Edgar 39-22 in a Marawood Conference South Division boys basketball game at Auburndale High School.
Markus Kleifgen scored 20 points and grabbed five rebounds to lead the Apaches, who improve to 2-0 overall and in the Marawood Conference South. Edgar falls to 1-2 and 0-2 in the conference.
The Apaches shot just 28 percent (13 of 47), but held Edgar to only 10 of 24 from the floor, forced 19 turnovers and held a 23-18 rebounding advantage.
“We took care of the ball well and got open looks, they just didn’t go in,” Auburndale coach Chad Weinfurter said. “I thought we settled for outside shots too much early and they settled in their zone and said ‘Go ahead and beat us from there.’ We hit enough shots to beat them and defensively we were great.”
Kleifgen scored eight points in the final 2 minutes of the first quarter, including back-to-back 3-pointers, to give Auburndale a 14-4 lead.
Edgar cut the Apaches’ lead to 18-13 when Caden Untiedt scored in the opening minute of the second half, but Auburndale put the clamps on the rest of the way.
Auburndale held Edgar without a basket for 7 minutes to open up a 10-point lead again and pushed the lead to 18 as Cale Weiler and Kleifgen closed out a 17-4 run with 3-pointers midway through the fourth quarter.
“I told the guys every game isn’t going to be pretty, you have to grind some out,” Weinfurter said.
Auburndale tied for the Marawood South title last season with Marathon and Weinfuter said he expects the Apaches to be in the mix for a top spot in the conference again this season.
“Isaac (Castellano) and Blake (Anderson) are starting for the first time on varsity and Kyle Greunke hasn’t played yet, but he’ll be back on Monday so that will help us a lot,” Weinfurter said. “We’re not going to shoot like this every night, so I feel good. We have a veteran group that know there roles.
“There were so many good seniors that graduate last year. It’s really going to be interesting how some of the younger guys step up. We have an advantage because we have most of our players back. Stratford has a lot of guys back. I think you’ll see a lot better basketball later in the year than early in the season.”
Auburndale hosts Wisconsin Rapids Assumption next Thursday.
Apaches 39, Wildcats 22
Edgar 4 7 4 7 – 22
Auburndale 14 4 7 14 – 39
EDGAR (22): Caden Untiedt 2-10 1-2 6, Dalton Schroeder 0-3 0-0 0, Phillip Lemmer 1-2 0-0 2, Nehemiah Werner 0-0 0-2 0, Blake Lehman 0-0 0-0 0, Will Hannemann 2-2 0-0 4, David Kornack 2-2 0-0 4, Marshall Stieber 3-5 0-0 6. FG: 10-24. FT: 1-4. 3-pointers: 1-4 (Untiedt 1-2, Schroeder 0-2). Rebounds: 18 (Kornack 6). Turnovers: 19. Fouls: 17. Fouled out: none. Record: 1-2, 0-2 Marawood South.
AUBURNDALE (39): Cale Weiler 1-10 2-2 5, Tom Sabel 0-0 0-0 0, Blake Anderson 1-5 0-0 2, Isaac Castellano 0-3 2-4 2, Markus Kleifgen 8-17 0-0 20, Ben Bolder 0-0 1-2 1, Tyler Hartle 1-4 0-0 4, Tony Altmann 0-0 0-0 0. FG: 13-47. FT: 8-12. 3-pointers: 5-25 (Kleifgen 4-11, Weiler 1-8, Anderson 0-3, Hartle 0-2, Castellano 0-1). Rebounds: 23 (Kleifgen 5, Hawkins 5). Turnovers: 7. Fouls: 8. Fouled out: none. Record: 2-0 overall and Marawood South.