This story is sponsored by: The University of Wisconsin-Marshfield/Wood County
By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
AUBURNDALE – The opening possession of Saturday night’s girls basketball game between Stratford and Auburndale forecasted what was to come.
The Tigers chewed up 45 seconds, patiently passing the ball around Auburndale’s zone before Taya Nett drilled a 3-pointer. Stratford never trailed and cruised to a 47-26 victory in the Marawood Conference South Division contest at Auburndale High School.
Stratford is now 15-6 and finishes the Marawood South season with an 8-4 record. Auburndale drops to 9-11 and ends up 5-7 in conference play.
Two free throws by Brooke Anderson brought Auburndale to within 12-8 before Stratford turned up the defensive pressure.
The Apaches didn’t score for nearly 7 minutes as Stratford built a 19-8 lead after another 3 from Nett.
The two teams traded baskets and Stratford led 21-10 at halftime and led by double digits the rest of the way.
“I feel like we’re maturing,” Stratford coach Tammie Christopherson said. “Taya Nett played just awesome tonight. We’re starting to get scoring from all over the place, where before Sammy (Griesbach) and Andie (Zuelke) kind of carried the bulk of the scoring. We’ve had almost a different leading scorer every night these last few weeks. That’s the hardest team to beat. Everybody is doing their job and we’re maturing and getting in the right groove.”
Stratford had an 11-3 run to start the second half and the game was never in doubt from there. The Tigers shot 58 percent overall, making 18 of 31 shots from the field.
Zuelke scored on a pair of jumpers, made a free throw, and hit inside to help push the Tigers’ lead to 41-19 with 5 minutes to go. She finished with 14 points and Nett added 13 for Stratford.
With Auburndale sinking two or three players on Zuelke underneath the hoop, she stepped out to the free throw line area and was able to hit a few shots that opened up the inside for others. The Tigers also made 4 of 6 shots from 3-point range, something that was uncommon during the first half of the season.
“All season it took us to get confidence to shoot from the outside,” Christopherson said. “In the last three games, we’ve been hitting from the outside. They’ve been clogging Andie with three people on now she’s hitting from the outside. Kaylee, Taya, Sammy is even looking from at the basket. If they’re going to clog us underneath, we have to find a different way to score.”
Stratford will play in the third-place game and Auburndale the fifth-place game in the Marawood North-South crossovers next Friday. Stratford will be at Abbotsford and Auburndale will play at Athens.
WIAA playoff pairings are set to come out late Sunday.
Tigers 47, Apaches 26
Stratford 21 26 – 47
Auburndale 10 16 – 26
STRATFORD (47): Olympia Garrigan 0-0 0-0 0, Taya Nett 4-6 3-5 13, Blaire Lindner 0-0 0-0 0, Samantha Griesbach 3-5 2-3 8, Brooke Peterson 0-0 0-0 0, Olivia Burrows 0-0 0-0 0, Mariah Zawislan 0-0 0-0 0, Chelsey Gliniecki 2-5 0-0 4, Kaylee Hollatz 3-6 0-0 8, Andie Zuelke 6-9 2-7 14, Callie Lehman 0-0 0-0 0. FG: 18-31. FT: 7-15. 3-pointers: 4-6 (Nett 2-2, Hollatz 2-3, Zuelke 0-1). Rebounds: 24 (Zuelke 9). Turnovers: 11. Fouls: 12. Fouled out: none. Record: 15-6, 8-4 Marawood Conference South Division.
AUBURNDALE (26): Mackenzie Raab 3-7 1-2 7, Brooke Anderson 2-6 3-3 7, Rachel Gronemeyer 0-3 2-2 2, Maggie Willfahrt 0-0 0-0 0, Izzy Hilber 1-4 0-0 2, Rachael Bolder 1-5 0-0 2, Lauren Dillinger 0-0 0-0 0, Marissa Ponshock 0-2 0-0 0, Taylor Stanton 0-0 0-1 0, Kali Karl 0-3 1-4 0-0 1, Natalie Aue 2-3 0-0 4, Hannah Bolder 0-1 1-2 1. FG: 9-34. FT: 8-14. 3-pointers: 0-2 (Karl 0-2). Rebounds: 22 (R. Bolder 6). Turnovers: 12. Fouls: 14. Fouled out: none. Record: 9-11, 5-7 Marawood Conference South Division.