This story is sponsored by Dental Clinic of Marshfield
By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
MARSHFIELD – For the final 8 minutes of Marshfield’s boys basketball game against Wausau East on Friday night, the Tigers couldn’t have played more perfectly.
The Tigers made 12 of 13 shots from the field, didn’t turn the ball over once, and scored 31 points, turning a 10-point deficit into a 69-65 win over Wausau East at the Marshfield High School Fieldhouse.
Luke Zuiker scored all 11 of his points in the fourth quarter, Luke Olson hit back-to-back 3-pointers and Alex Strege punctuated the victory with a high-flying dunk in the closing seconds to push Marshfield to 5-4 overall and 3-1 in the Wisconsin Valley Conference.
Wausau East falls to 3-8 and 1-3 in the Valley.
Conrad Felten and Travis Waldvogel each hit 3-pointers in an 8-2 run over the final 2:44 of the third quarter to give the Lumberjacks a 48-38 lead.
Suddenly, the Tigers found their groove.
Zuiker hit his first basket of the game, a 3-pointer, to end a 7-0 run to start the fourth quarter and cut East’s lead to 48-45.
A rebound of Marshfield’s only miss was put back in by Olson and a basket by Zuiker gave Marshfield’s its first lead at 53-52 with 3:54 left.
After Felten tied the game with a free throw, Marshfield used a 12-5 run that included Olson’s two 3-pointers, to pull ahead for good.
Isaac Accola made a pair of free throws and Strege took a long pass and threw down a dunk to ice the win.
“We figured out their 1-3-1 zone a little better and used more of our offense against it,” Marshfield coach Bill Zuiker said. “For the first half, we thought we’d pass it around a couple of times and get an open shot and shoot. It doesn’t happen like that.
“We got it into the high post more, we looked over the top to our bigger kids more. Alex Strege can jump, Tanner Brown can jump, and they can be real threats, but if you don’t look…and when you make shots, it makes everything look good.”
Strege, who finished with a team-high 20 points, said the Tigers had to stick together to get back in the game after trailing by double digits.
“Coach was preaching all game, ‘Together, together, we’re not going to do this on one play, you’ve got to stick together,’” Strege said. “Definitely at the end we just wore them down. We kept at it and never gave up.”
Marshfield has struggled with consistency so far during the first half of the season. Bill Zuiker said Friday’s game was proof of when the team plays together, it can be a good team.
“The commitment we made to play together was the key,” he said. “Some of it is effort from beginning to end, but much of it is togetherness. It has to be a five-man deal. It’s not that we have selfish kids, I think we have players at times that think they have certain roles and have to do certain things.
“I think it’s an understanding of how we have to play together to be at our best.”
Marshfield plays a nonconference game at Holmen at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, and will be at Stevens Point in a girls-boys doubleheader on Tuesday. The girls game starts at 6 p.m. with the boys game to follow at 7:45 p.m. Saturday’s game, and both games on Tuesday will be broadcast on WDLB-AM 1450 and online at wdlbwosq.com.
Tigers 69, Lumberjacks 65
Wausau East 18 18 12 17 – 65
Marshfield 15 9 14 31 – 69
WAUSAU EAST (65): Dylan Hamlin 2-2 0-0 4, Bryce Taylor 0-1 0-0 0, Travis Waldvogel 3-5 0-0 8, Cole Nelson 5-9 1-2 13, Bryce Widmark 0-1 2-2 2, Adam Urmanski 3-6 0-0 7, Justin Strom 4-7 1-1 10, Conrad Felten 7-10 6-7 21. FG: 24-41. FT: 10-12. 3-pointers: 7-12 (Nelson 2-3, Waldvogel 2-3, Felten 1-1, Strom 1-1, Urmanski 1-3, Taylor 0-1). Rebounds: 14 (Urmanski 5). Turnovers: 13. Fouls: 16. Fouled out: none. Record: 3-8, 1-3 Wisconsin Valley Conference.
MARSHFIELD (69): Jeff Allison 1-1 0-0 2, Mack Scheppler 0-0 0-0 0, Isaac Accola 3-5 2-2 8, Matt Oestreich 2-3 0-1 4, Luke Zuiker 5-12 0-0 11, Luke Olson 7-13 0-1 17, Tanner Dennis-Brown 3-5 1-2 7, Alex Strege 8-13 4-4 20, Caleb Alexander 0-1 0-0 0. FG: 29-53. FT: 7-10. 3-pointers: 4-15 (Olson 3-8, Zuiker 1-5, Strege 0-2). Rebounds: 21 (Strege 6). Turnovers: 8. Fouls: 14. Fouled out: none. Record: 5-4, 3-1 Wisconsin Valley Conference.