This story is sponsored by: The Marshfield Tiger Booster Club
By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
MARSHFIELD – A 4 ½-minute stretch early in the second half doomed the Marshfield boys basketball team on Tuesday night in its nonconference game against Rhinelander.
After starting the second half on a 7-0 run to open up a nine-point lead, the Tigers turned the ball over four times in five possessions and Rhinelander ripped off 16 points in a row on its way to a 64-61 victory at Marshfield High School.
A three-point play by Seth Anderson, who led Marshfield with 31 points, helped Marshfield build a 40-31 lead 3 minutes into the second half.
Suddenly, Rhinelander’s trapping defense started to cause problems for the Tigers.
The Hodags (9-1) scored on seven-straight possessions on their 16-0 run to take a 47-40 lead, and they would not trail again.
Owen White, a Michigan Tech recruit, scored 10 of his 28 points during the run that eventually ended when Reed Miller scored with 9:46 to go for Marshfield.
“I’m not surprised,” Marshfield coach Scott Scheuer said. “We’ve seen White for four years and they do such a great job of getting him in a position to score. When you have a 6-foot-6 kid that can shoot, you have to defend.”
The Tigers (4-6) pulled to within three on two free throws by Anderson, and got it down to 58-56 on a 3-pointer from Brant Bohman with 1:00 remaining.
Rhinelander pushed the lead back to 62-56 on two free throws by Reese Flores and a basket from Brad Quade, before Anderson hit two more free throws and Miller drilled a 3-point from the left corner with 23 seconds left to bring Marshfield to within a point.
After two free throws by Quade, Marshfield had a final chance to tie it with a 3-pointer, but couldn’t get an open attempt and Miller’s desperation shot at the buzzer fell short.
Marshfield had 19 turnovers, 12 in the second half, and was just 6 of 12 at the free throw line in the final 6 minutes.
“Turnovers and free throws, at every and any level, will make or break you,” Scheuer said. “We made a few adjustments on my part, and I probably shouldn’t have. They called a timeout, so sometimes as a coach you think, ‘Maybe I need to make an adjustment,’ and I didn’t need to. We were doing fine.
“I always tell the guys that, obviously they need to make improvements and clean some things up, but so do I. I self-assess a lot, and hopefully not only will they improve, but so will I and let them play.”
Marshfield plays at D.C. Everest on Friday in a Wisconsin Valley Conference game.
Hodags 64, Tigers 61
Rhinelander 31 33 – 64
Marshfield 33 28 – 61
RHINELANDER (64): Junior Howard 4-11 0-0 11, Brad Comer 0-5 0-2 0, Bryce Shickert 0-0 4-6 4, Jared Haug 0-0 0-0 0, Brad Quade 4-6 5-6 13, Reese Flores 1-1 2-2 5, Owen White 11-15 3-5 28, Brock Lieder 1-5 0-0 3. FG: 21-43. FT: 14-21. 3-pointers: 8-20 (White 3-4, Howard 3-9, Lieder 1-3, Flores 1-1, Comer 0-3). Rebounds: 19 (White 6). Turnovers: 11. Fouls: 19. Fouled out: Comer. Record: 8-1.
MARSHFIELD (61): Isaac Meverden 0-3 2-4 2, Brant Bohman 4-10 0-0 10, Tommy Olson 1-2 0-1 2, Reed Miller 6-11 1-5 16, Seth Anderson 10-15 9-11 31, Anthony Posteluk 0-2 0-0 0, John Reigel 0-1 0-0 0, Grant Urban 0-1 0-0 0. FG: 21-45. FT: 12-21. 3-pointers: 7-20 (Miller 3-5, Anderson 2-5, Bohman 2-6, Olson 0-1, Meverden 0-1, Posteluk 0-2). Rebounds: 30 (Anderson 8, Miller 8, Meverden 7). Turnovers: 19. Fouls: 19. Fouled out: none. Record: 4-6.