This story is sponsored by: Trudeau Construction and The Tile Guys
By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
MARSHFIELD – On Jan. 13, the Marshfield boys basketball team overcame a 16-point halftime deficit to force overtime and went on to beat Wausau East 61-60.
On Tuesday night, the Lumberjacks avenged some payback of sorts.
Mark McCormick drilled a 15-foot jumper as time expired to lead Wausau East to a 47-45 victory at the Marshfield High School.
The winning basket capped a 13-6 run in the fourth quarter by the Lumberjacks. East forced five turnovers and held the Tigers to just two shot attempts and one field goal in the final 8 minutes.
Marshfield lost its second game to fall to 13-7 and 7-4 in the Wisconsin Valley Conference. East improves to 11-8 and 5-5 in conference play.
“The discouraging thing is that you let one go here that you had opportunities to win,” Marshfield coach Craig Michaelis said. “It’s going to be a tournament feel from here on out and teams are clawing, fighting and scratching to do the same things and to get to the same things.”
Marshfield trailed 18-11 after the first quarter before storming back to cut the deficit to two by halftime.
Despite East grabbing eight offensive rebounds that resulted in nine second-chance points, the Tigers closed the half on a 9-4 run to cut the Lumberjacks’ lead to 28-26. Luke Zuiker scored 16 of his game-high 19 points in the first half.
Elliot Ashbeck scored a pair of baskets and Ben Satter made a hoop to give Marshfield a 32-28 lead early in the third quarter.
The Tigers led for the remainder of the quarter and went up 39-34 heading into the fourth.
Marshfield turned the ball over five times on its first six possession of the fourth quarter and East took advantage. A three-point play by Conrad Felten tied the game at 43-41 with 3:44 left, and a basket by Cole Nelson at the 3-minute mark gave the Lumberjacks a two-point lead.
Brandon Brown made a pair of free throws and Ashbeck made one of two from the line to put Marshfield back on top 44-43 with 56 seconds left.
McCormick responded with two free throws of his own with 19 seconds left, before Ashbeck was fouled with 7.8 seconds to go. He again made one of two to tie the game. East rebounded the miss on the second shot and McCormick cut inside the 3-point line on the right side of the lane and drilled the long jump as the buzzer sounded.
East ended up with a 26-14 rebounding advantage, including 13 on the offensive end that resulted in 15 second-chance points for the Lumberjacks.
“We just didn’t take care of the ball,” Michaelis said. “We were entirely passive. We had spent the first 26, 28 minutes taking care of the basketball and all of a sudden it became a hot potato. You can’t do that, especially at this time of year. You have to take care of the ball and finish games when you have the opportunity.”
Marshfield wraps up its regular season next week with a home game on Tuesday against Rhinelander and its WVC finale on Feb. 23 at Wisconsin Rapids.
Lumberjacks 47, Tigers 45
Wausau East 18 10 6 13 – 47
Marshfield 11 15 13 6 – 45
WAUSAU EAST (47): Ryan Pitney 1-2 0-1 2, Cole Nelson 2-4 0-0 5, Andy Plautz 1-6 0-0 2, Mark McCormick 6-10 2-2 14, Justin Strom 2-4 0-0 4, Conrad Felten 8-15 1-1 18, Brandon Luedke 1-2 0-0 2. FG: 21-43. FT: 3-4. 3-pointers: 2-12 (Felten 1-5, Nelson 1-3, Plautz 0-4). Rebounds: 26 (Luedke 7). Turnovers: 7. Fouls: 11. Fouled out: none. Record: 11-8, 5-5 Wisconsin Valley Conference.
MARSHFIELD (45): Luke Olson 0-3 0-0 0, Elliot Ashbeck 4-11 4-6 12, Isaac Accola 2-3 0-0 4, Matt Oestreich 1-2 1-2 4, Luke Zuiker 7-9 2-2 19, Brandon Brown 0-0 2-2 2, Ben Satter 2-4 0-0 4. FG: 16-32. FT: 9-12. 3-pointers: 4-7 (Zuiker 3-3, Oestreich 1-1, Ashbeck 0-3). Rebounds: 14 (Ashbeck 4). Turnovers: 7. Fouls: 11. Fouled out: none. Record: 13-7, 7-4 WVC.