This story is sponsored by Norm E Lane Farm
By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
AUBURNDALE – The Auburndale boys basketball team continued its dominance and stands one win away from at least a share of another Marawood Conference South Division championship and three wins shy of a perfect regular season after pounding Pittsville 58-36 on Thursday night at the Tim Anderson Gymnasium at Auburndale High School.
Austin Hawkins scored 17 points and grabbed 17 rebounds, and Markus Klefigen had a team-high 18 points in the victory for the Apaches, who improve to 19-0 overall and 12-0 in the Marawood South.
The Apaches wrap up their conference schedule next week with games at Marathon on Tuesday and at Stratford on Feb. 17 before its regular-season finale in a Marawood Conference crossover game on Feb. 25. Auburndale has won 16 of its 19 games by double digits.
“Our players believe in each other and love playing with each other,” Auburndale coach Chad Weinfurter said. “We’ve met a lot of challenges. That Newman game (a 59-52 road win on Feb. 3), when you can win a game like that, it builds your confidence. It was good for us to have a close game. We haven’t had too many opportunities for that, which is a credit to our kids.”
The Apaches made quick work of Pittsville (5-13, 3-9 Marawood South), opening the game with a 10-3 run that was sparked by six points from Hawkins.
Auburndale led 16-8 after one quarter and after an early Pittsville basket it scored the next nine points – seven by Kleifgen on two 3-pointers and a free throw – to open up a 25-10 lead. The Apaches led by at least 11 the rest of the half and no less than 14 in the second half.
“Tonight we played some 2-3 zone for the first time in probably some 20 years and I don’t think Pittsville saw it coming,” Weinfurter said. “I thought our kids did a great job with it, especially not having played it before in a game.”
Kyle Greunke added 11 points for Auburndale.
Kleifgen said the Apaches’ chemistry and overall teamwork have been the biggest reasons for their success so far this season.
“Our main thing is teamwork,” Kleifgen said. “We assist on a lot of plays. It’s finding the open guy, making the right choice and getting a good job. Teamwork and hustling too.”
The chance for Kleifgen and the other five seniors on the roster to finish off their careers at Auburndale with back-to-back conference titles is something they have been looking forward to all season.
“One of goals from the start of the season was to win the Marawood Conference South, so we’re really going to be playing our hearts out to win that (against second-place Stratford),” Kleifgen said. “We really want to beat them.”
Sawyer Ladick topped Pittsville with 17 points.
Apaches 58, Panthers 36
Pittsville 8 8 7 13 – 36
Auburndale 16 18 11 13 – 58
PITTSVILLE (36): Sawyer Ladick 7-18 0-0 17, Austin John 0-1 2-4 2, Joey Arendt 0-1 0-0 0, David Sojka 3-7 1-2 9, Brad Wesely 1-11 0-0 2, Trail Pierce 3-6 0-0 6, Brad Brux 0-1 0-0 0, Gabe Hautala 0-3 0-0 0. FG: 14-48. FT: 3-6. 3-pointers: 5-18 (Ladick 3-7, Sojka 2-5, Weseley 0-5, Hautala 0-1). Rebounds: 26 (Pierce 8). Turnovers: 14. Fouls: 14. Fouled out: none. Record: 5-13, 3-9 Marawood South.
AUBURNDALE (58): Tom Sabel 0-1 0-0 0, Matthew Nikolay 0-0 0-0 0, Blake Anderson 0-1 2-4 2, Isaac Castellano 2-6 0-0 5, Zach Staats 0-0 0-0 0, Kyle Greunke 3-6 3-6 11, Markus Kleifgen 8-14 0-0 18, Austin Hawkins 8-16 1-4 17, Ben Bolder 0-0 0-0 0, Tyler Hartle 2-5 0-0 4, Tony Altmann 0-0 1-2 1. FG: 23-49. FT: 7-16. 3-pointers: 5- 11 (Klefigen 2-4, Greunke 2-4, Castellano 1-1, Anderson 0-1, Hawkins 0-1). Rebounds: 38 (Hawkins 17). Turnovers: 8. Fouls: 10. Fouled out: none. Record: 19-0, 12-0 Marawood South.