This story is sponsored by Dental Clinic of Marshfield
By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
Watch video highlights of the Tigers’ win at allmarshfield.com
MARSHFIELD – Marshfield scored the first seven points of the game and never trailed on its way to a 55-43 win over Holmen in a nonconference boys basketball game Monday night at Marshfield High School.
Elliot Ashbeck scored 19 points and Luke Olson hit four 3-pointers and scored 14 points for the Tigers, who improve to 7-4.
Marshfield made 7 of 13 3-pointers in the victory, its second straight.
“Our strength is to be workmanlike and we have to do it for four quarters,” said Marshfield coach Craig Michaelis, who picked up his 100th career coaching victory. “Tonight is the way we have to play. We did the little things tonight and defensively I thought we were mentally focused on the task and did what we needed to do. To me, that’s a mark of growth. We had a two, two and a half game stretch of not playing the way we need to play. I hope the second half at (Wausau) East propelled us upward – not back to where we were, but above that and we continue to improve.”
Marshfield led 9-2 after the first quarter and the Tigers hit 4 of 6 from 3-point range in the second quarter to go up 25-13 at half.
Olson hit a pair from long range and Ashbeck and Luke Zuiker also hit 3-pointers for Marshfield in the quarter.
Michaelis said he has been pleased with the way Olson has developed.
“I was happy for Luke Olson tonight,” he said. “He’s been struggling in terms of finding opportunities and to get in the flow and getting into a rhythm, and he did that tonight. That makes us more dangerous offensively when he can do that. He’s getting those because we’re patient. Patient doesn’t mean 15 passes, patient means waiting for the appropriate thing. A lot of those were dumping it into Elliot and they had to sacrifice and extra body to deal with him, and he was smart and dumped it back outside and we get open looks. Those inside-out 3s go in far more often than the ones where you pass it around the perimeter.”
The Tigers used a 10-4 run to open up a 35-17 lead but Holmen (7-5) hung around, eventually cutting Marshfield’s lead to 49-40 with 2 minutes left.
Marshfield made 6 of 10 free throws in the final 1:51 to keep the Vikings at bay.
Marshfield hosts Wisconsin Rapids on Friday night in the second game of a girls-boys doubleheader. The girls play at 6 p.m. with the boys starting at 7:45 p.m.
Tigers 55, Vikings 43
HOLMEN (43): Ben Davis 0-1 2-2 2, Griffin Johnson 0-2 0-0 0, Brady Knueppel 0-1 2-2 2, Bryan Pearse 0-0 1-2 1, Ryan Wesely 2-5 4-6 9, Jordan Malone 1-2 0-0 2, Dylan Paulson 0-1 0-0 0, Michael Woggon 5-9 0-1 11, Joe Vike 2-8 0-0 4, Taylor Kohlwey 2-4 0-0 4, Greg Rooney 2-2 0-0 4, Josh Zibrowski 2-4 0-0 4. FG: 16-39. FT: 9-13. 3-pointers: 2-14 (Wesely 1-4, Woggon 1-2, Malone 0-1, Kohlwey 0-1, Johnson 0-2, Vike 0-4). Rebounds: 19 (Woggon 4, Zibrowski 4). Turnovers: 12. Fouls: 14. Fouled out: Johnson. Record: 7-5.
MARSHFIELD (55): Luke Olson 5-8 0-0 14, Elliot Ashbeck 4-14 10-13, Isaac Accola 0-2 0-0 0, Matt Oestreich 0-0 0-0 0, Luke Zuiker 4-8 0-4 10, Sean Koran 0-1 0-0 0, Adam Voss 0-0 0-0 0, Tanner Dennis-Brown 1-2 0-0 2, Brandon Brown 2-2 1-2 5, Ben Satter 1-1 3-4 5. FG: 17-38. FT: 14-23. 3-pointers: 7-13 (Olson 4-7, Zuiker 2-2, Ashbeck 1-3, Koran 0-1). Rebounds: 18 (Ashbeck 7). Turnovers: 6. Fouls: 13. Fouled out: none. Record: 7-4.