This story is sponsored by Forward Financial Bank
By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
STRATFORD – No one can accuse the Stratford boys basketball team of quitting.
Down 24 points with 10 minutes left, the Tigers stormed back and had a chance to pull ahead in the final seconds, but fell short and lost to Marathon 64-61 in a battle of Marawood Conference South Division leaders Thursday night at Stratford High School.
The loss is the first of the season for Stratford, which drops to 8-1 overall and 5-1 in the Marawood South. Marathon improves to 7-1 and 5-1 in conference play. With Auburndale’s loss to Edgar on Thursday, Auburndale, Marathon and Stratford are tied for the conference lead.
“We needed a game like this,” Stratford coach Curt Schmidt said. “You just don’t get better if you don’t play close games. They (Marathon) are a very physically mature team, senior dominated as far as their best players, and we have one senior. I’m proud of their effort.”
Marathon controlled the game throughout the first 28 minutes, building a 57-33 lead after a 20-11 run to start the second half.
Trent Heckel and Teddy Redman hit back-to-back 3-pointers to spark Stratford on both ends of the floor.
The Tigers forced turnovers on four straight Marathon possessions, and 10 in all over a six-minute stretch to climb back in the game.
Vaughn Breit hit a pair of baskets, and Heckel and Chander Schmidt added 3-pointers in a 14-0 run that brought Stratford to within 59-55 with 3:25 remaining in the game.
Stratford got as close as two at 63-61 on a basket by Benjamin Barten with 32 seconds left, but the Tigers wouldn’t score again.
After Marathon missed its fourth free throw in a row in the final 1:23, Stratford had a chance to tie the game or take the lead, but a 3-point attempt by Redman missed. Marathon’s Carter Hanke rebounded and made one free throw with 1.1 seconds left.
A desperation 3-pointer from three-quarters court was blocked as time expired.
“The first half, they beat us up pretty bad,” Curt Schmidt said. “In the second half, we had a little more energy, we got a little more confident, had a little momentum. We had foul trouble in the first half and missed a lot of free throws. We hit a few shots, had some momentum shifts as they had a lot of turnovers.
“The first half we showed our youth, and the second half they were, ‘Let’s play.’ They kind of got punched in the face a little bit, then they played hard and didn’t clam up.”
Donavon Free scored 24 points and Hanke finshed with 16 points and nine rebounds for Marathon. The duo combined to make 15 of 19 shots from the field.
Breit and Barten each had 13 points for Stratford.
Stratford is off until Jan. 4 when it hosts Athens in a Marawood crossover game.
Raiders 64, Tigers 61
Marathon 37 27 – 64
Stratford 22 39 – 61
MARATHON (64): Justin Lemke 2-3 0-1 6, Clarke Mouw 0-0 0-1 0, Kaiden Turnquist 0-1 0-0 0, Cameron Schilling 2-7 2-2 8, Hunter Seubert 1-2 0-0 2, Nathan Stoffel 4-11 0-4 8, Carter Hanke 7-8 2-3 16, Donavon Free 8-11 6-7 24. FG: 24-43. FT: 10-18. 3-pointers: 6-13 (Lemke 2-3, Schilling 2-4, Free 2-4, Seubert 0-1, Turnquist 0-1). Rebounds: 24 (Hanke 9). Turnovers: 19. Fouls: 10. Fouled out: none. Record: 7-1, 5-1 Marawood Conference South Division.
STRATFORD (61): Chandler Schmidt 1-2 0-0 3, Okley Wrensch 2-5 0-0 5, Teddy Redman 4-15 0-0 9, Trent Heckel 3-6 0-2 9, Branden Ackley 0-0 0-0 0, Paul Huther 4-4 1-2 9, Vaughn Breit 6-10 1-6 13, Lance Heidmann 0-1 0-0 0, Benjamin Barten 6-8 1-2 13. FG: 26-51. FT: 3-12. 3-pointers: 6-18 (Heckel 3-5, Schmidt 1-2, Wrensch 1-5, Redman 1-5, Heidmann 0-1). Rebounds: 23 (Breit 7). Turnovers: 17. Fouls: 19. Fouled out: none. Record: 8-1, 5-1 Marawood Conference South Division.