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By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
SPENCER – If there was any question that the Marshfield Columbus Catholic boys basketball team was going to be a contender again in the Cloverbelt Conference East Division, the Dons’ performance on Tuesday at Spencer put that notion to rest.
The Dons made 7 of 12 3-pointers and forced 12 turnovers to open up a 20-point lead by halftime and went on to beat Spencer 64-41 in a Cloverbelt East matchup.
Columbus Catholic improves to 5-1 overall and 3-0 in the conference, while Spencer falls to 2-2 overall and in the Cloverbelt East.
“We just took it as another game, a step to get better and we worked as a team and got each other shots,” Columbus Catholic senior Mike Iwanski said.
Tyler Derfus made 3 of 4 3-pointers in the first quarter to help the Dons open up a 17-6 lead.
While the Dons went 7 of 11 shooting from the field, Spencer was only able to get up five shots as it committed seven turnovers against a relentless Columbus defense.
“I thought our guards, Jared (Fleischmann) and Brandon (Nikolai) did a really nice job of staying in front of the ball, getting turns, not reaching and not getting behind and bailing them out,” Columbus coach Joe Konieczny said. “It was really difficult from them to play against our pressure and we made some shots early. I thought we were patient and the shots we got were good.”
Columbus stayed hot in the second quarter, using a 9-1 run during the first 3:30 to cruise to a 26-7 lead.
Derfus hit his fifth 3-pointer of the half with 2:24 to go and Iwanski added another from long range at the buzzer to push the Dons’ lead to 35-15 at the break.
“We didn’t have a lot of turnovers against the press, what gave us problems was we didn’t run good offense,” Spencer coach Randy Reckner said. “We tried a couple of different things to try to stop Derfus, who didn’t seem to miss tonight. When you play a team like that that was that hot from the perimeter, it’s going to be a struggle.”
Columbus led by as much as 35 midway through the fourth quarter after Fleischmann scored four points in an 8-2 run.
Derfus finished with 22 points and six rebounds, Iwanski added 13 points and Fleischmann had 12 points for the Dons.
“I think Jared Fleischmann gets better every time he goes out there,” Konieczny said. “He’s going to be a good one, hopefully. He loves basketball and he’s really passionate about it. Mike (Iwanski) seemed to shoot the ball a little more often tonight. It’s tough to get him to shoot because he’s too unselfish. We’re balanced with Mike, Tyler, Brandon and Jared, and a couple others, we can be pretty good.”
Steven Gilboy led the Rockets with 11 points.
Columbus hosts Augusta on Friday, while Spencer travels to Granton.
Dons 64, Rockets 41
Columbus 17 18 19 10 – 64
Spencer 6 9 11 15 – 41
COLUMBUS (64): Tyler Derfus 8-11 0-0 22, Mike Iwanski 5-9 0-0 13, Jared Fleischman 4-7 4-4 12, Brandon Nikolai 4-5 0-0 9, Derrick Green 1-3 2-2 4, D.J. Cleveland 1-1 0-0 2, Jacob Puent 1-4 0-0 2, Alex Larson 0-2 0-2 0. FG: 24-42. FT: 6-8. 3-pointers: 10-17 (Derfus 6-8, Iwanski 3-5, Nikolai 1-1, Fleischman 0-2, Larson 0-1). Rebounds: 14 (Derfus 6). Turnovers: 11. Fouls: 14. Fouled out: none. Record: 5-1, 3-0 Cloverbelt East.
SPENCER (41): Steven Gilboy 4-12 3-4 11, Sam Cattanach 3-6 1-2 7, Collin Cowell 2-3 0-0 6, Cody Esser 2-3 1-1 5, Joe Meyers 1-7 0-0 3, Jeremiah Cattanach 1-5 0-0 3, Adam Skrzeczkoski 1-3 0-0 3, Matt Mlsna 1-1 1-1 3, Jordan Buss 0-3 0-0 0. FG: 15-43. FT: 6-8. 3-pointers: 5-17 (Cowell 2-3, Skrzeczkoski 1-2, J. Cattanach 1-4, Meyers 1-6, Buss 0-1, Gilboy 0-1). Rebounds: 23 (Gilboy 5). Turnovers: 21. Fouls: 12. Fouled out: none. Record: 2-2 overall and Cloverbelt East.