This story is sponsored by: High Street Salon, Spa & Travel
By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
MARSHFIELD – The Marshfield girls basketball team has waded through injuries and inexperience throughout the season and coach Heidi Michaelis said she just wants the team to finish strong heading into the playoffs.
The Tigers are doing that, winning their fourth game in a row Thursday with a 48-38 victory over Wisconsin Rapids at the Marshfield High School Fieldhouse.
Although Marshfield struggled at times Tuesday, shooting just 34 percent, not making a shot from the field in the fourth quarter and committing 14 turnovers, it did enough to beat a pesky Raiders squad.
The Tigers made 9 of 14 free throws in the fourth quarter, including 7 of their last 8 attempts, and despite seeing Rapids cut a 13-point lead to three, they held the Raiders scoreless in the final minute to pull away.
Marshfield improves to 13-8 overall and 5-6 in the Wisconsin Valley Conference after posting its fourth-straight win. Wisconsin Rapids drops to 5-15 and 3-9 in the conference.
“We came out in the third quarter and did better,” Heidi Michaelis said. “We got it up to 13, they got back to eight or whatever, and then we did not finish the game strong. We made enough free throws. I told them we needed to get that win, it didn’t matter if it was perfect or not. I’m proud that when they got it to four we made enough free throws, made enough stops, had enough rebounds.”
Marshfield trailed for only the first 2:20 of the game before a 3-pointer by Caitlin Michaelis gave the Tigers a 4-2 lead and sparked a 10-3 run that put Marshfield up 11-5 at the end of the first quarter.
Rapids scored eight straight points late in the second quarter to tie the game at 21-21, but the Tigers closed the half with a basket by Ellie Fehrenbach and a free throw from Darian Molter to take a three-point lead.
The run continued with the Tigers scoring the first nine points of the third quarter and baskets by Fehrenbach and Molter in the final 30 seconds of the third quarter put Marshfield up 39-26.
Marshfiels missed all five shot attempts in the fourth quarter and Rapids was four of its first five to climb back in the game. However, the Raiders missed their final six shots and were 2 of 6 from the free throw line over the final 2:44 which helped the Tigers prevail.
Michaelis finished with 15 points, Molter had 13 and Fehrenbach 10 as the trio accounted for 38 of the Tigers’ 48 points. Michaelis and Fehrenbach each had seven rebounds.
“We said we wanted to finish the season 5-0 and go into the tournament playing as good as we could,” Heidi Michaelis said. “To Rapids’ credit, their bigs present problems to us. We rebound sporadically, and that’s been a thorn in our side all season. They’re shooting layups and we’re shooting 3s. We were tough enough to hang on for the win and we’re hoping to get better for that next game against Merrill.”
Marshfield wraps up its regular-season schedule Feb. 21 at Merrill. The game will be broadcast on WDLB-AM 1450 and wdlbwosq.com, with pregame starting at 7:15 p.m. Pairings for the upcoming WIAA playoffs will be released late Sunday. Check MarshfieldAreaSports.com for updates.
Tigers 48, Raiders 38
Wisconsin Rapids 5 16 5 12 – 38
Marshfield 11 13 15 9 – 48
WISCONSIN RAPIDS (38): Kendra Lysne 1-5 0-0 2, Maisie Langholff 3-8 2-3 8, Willow Eastlin 2-5 1-2 5, Paige Newman 2-11 0-0 5, Victoria Hansen 3-5 1-2 7, Allie Paitel 5-10 0-0 10, Shelby Steinke 0-2 1-3 1. FG: 16-46. FT: 5-10. 3-pointers: 1-9 (Newman 1-6, Langholff 0-1, Lysne 0-1, Eastling 0-1). Rebounds: 32 (Paitel 8, Hansen 7). Turnovers: 14. Fouls: 17. Fouled out: Hansen, Langholff. Record: 5-15, 3-9 Wisconsin Valley Conference.
MARSHFIELD (48): Darian Molter 6-15 1-2 13, Natalie Zuelke 1-3 3-4 5, Caitlin Michaelis 5-9 2-4 15, Emily Goeppinger 0-1 0-0 0, Lauren Gilbertson 0-0 0-0 0, Makayla Zimmermann 0-1 0-0 0, Ellie Kummer 1-11 2-4 5, Kailey Hubler 0-0 0-0 0, Ellie Fehrenbach 3-7 4-6 10. FG: 16-47. FT: 12-20. 3-pointers: 4-21 (Michaelis 3-6, Kummer 1-9, Molter 0-5, Goeppinger 0-1). Rebounds: 29 (Fehrenbach 7, Zuelke 7, Michaelis 7). Turnovers: 14. Fouls: 14. Fouled out: none. Record: 13-8, 5-6 Wisconsin Valley Conference.