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By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
MARSHFIELD – The last time, and only time, Marshfield won a Wisconsin Valley Conference title in boys basketball, coach Craig Michaelis was playing in the NCAA Tournament as a member of the Miami (Ohio) University men’s basketball team and the majority of this year’s Tigers were not even born.
On Friday, the Tigers added a second WVC championship to the record books when they throttled Wausau East 54-21, clinching at least a share of the title, the first for Marshfield since 1992.
“I’ve never won a Valley title at anything, I don’t even know what to say,” senior guard Ben Johnson said. “I look up there (at the conference title banners in the Marshfield Fieldhouse) and it’s been 18 years. It’s pretty sweet.”
After a sluggish first half, Marshfield outscored East 23-1 in the third quarter to win going away. Elliott Ashbeck came off the bench and scored 14 points to lead Marshfield, which improves to 15-5 overall and wraps up its Wisconsin Valley Conference schedule at 10-2. Cale Zuiker added 11 points and eight rebounds for the Tigers.
Marshfield can win the title outright with a Wausau West loss at Stevens Point on Thursday.
“It’s been a long time since we’ve been able to say ‘Champions of our conference,'” Michaelis said. “For this group it’s the first time climbing that mountain and sometimes the first time is the hardest.
“It’s been a long time coming. It brings to mind all of the guys I’ve had over the course of time. Certainly this group is the one that went out there and got it done. I’ve seen a lot of those guys in the past couple of weeks, gotten a lot of e-mails and well wishes from those people. You win it for this group, but there’s a whole community of people that supports this program.”
Both teams struggled throughout the first half on the offensive end. The Tigers made just 7 of 19 shots and missed all four of their free-throw attempts in the first half but held on to a 16-14 lead at halftime.
The struggles continued during the first 3 minutes of the third quarter as the Tigers missed seven of their first nine shots, but held East to just one point over the first 3:48. Then everything changed.
Marshfield ramped up its defensive pressure and found its offensive rhythm, scoring 18 straight points over the final 4 minutes of the period.
Ashbeck got the run started with a basket, and hustle plays on the defensive end by Antonie Brown-Hainz and Zuiker helped fuel the Tigers’ spurt and putting them on top 39-15.
“We knew we had a bad first half and knew what was at stake here,” Johnson said. “We knew what we had to do and everyone just wanted it so bad. The third quarter was amazing. I am thrilled right now.”
The Tigers were able to fight through their struggles and pull out close victories in the past week over Stevens Point, D.C. Everest and East. How?
“Team chemistry,” junior guard Sully Luepke said. “None of us ever get down on each other. We just pick each other up, go on to the next possession and hopefully pull out the victory like we have.”
Tigers 54, Lumberjacks 21
East 7 7 1 6 – 21
Marshfield 11 5 23 15 – 54
EAST (21): Nate Troyer 0-4 2-2 2, Ryan Zweck 1-3 0-0 2, Tom Keefe 1-2 0-0 2, Mark McCormick 1-7 0-0 2, Mitch Schuster 0-1 1-2 1, Trevor Peck 2-5 0-0 5, Drew Porter 3-6 0-0 6, Brandon Luedtke 0-1 1-2 1. FG: 8-33. FT: 4-6. 3-pointers: 1-7 (Peck 1-2, Troyer 0-2, Keefe 0-1, Spear 0-1, Zweck 0-1). Rebounds: 10 (Troyer 3). Turnovers: 20. Total fouls: 18. Fouled out: Zweck. Technical foul: Coach Jason Teske. Record: 6-14, 2-9 Wisconsin Valley.
MARSHFIELD (54): Josh Hennes 0-1 0-0 0, Sully Luepke 1-2 0-0 3, Elliott Ashbeck 5-7 2-2 14, Ryan Danczak 1-8 2-4 5, Steve Boehning 0-0 0-0 0, Cale Zuiker 4-10 3-7 11, Ben Johnson 1-1 2-2 4, Antoine Brown-Hainz 1-4 4-4 6, Jake Scheppler 3-6 1-1 7, Dustin Thumann 2-3 0-0 4, Chris Stemen 0-1 0-0 0, John Bauer 0-0 0-0 0. FG: 18-43. FT: 14-20. 3-pointers: 4-9 (Ashbeck 2-3, Luepke 1-2, Danczak 1-2, Zuiker 0-1, Thumann 0-1). Rebounds: 36 (Zuiker 8, Brown-Hainz 7). Turnovers: 13. Total fouls: 11. Fouled out: none. Record: 15-5, 10-2 Wisconsin Valley.
Paul Lecker can be reached by e-mail at paul@marshfieldareasports.com.
View video highlights of Marshfield’s victory at allmarshfield.com
