This story is sponsored by: American Family Insurance – Randy LeMoine Agency, LLC
By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
MARSHFIELD – It took a little while, but once the Marshfield Columbus Catholic girls basketball team got things rolling, it was in total control.
After neither team scored for the first 3 minutes, the Dons ran out to a 15-4 lead and cruised to a 63-31 victory in a WIAA Division 5 regional quarterfinal Tuesday night at Columbus Catholic High School.
Marissa Immerfall made her first eight shots from the field and finished with a game-high 25 points to lead Columbus Catholic, which improves to 12-10 this season.
The Dons will play a regional semifinal against the winner of Wednesday’s game between Tigerton and Bowler on Friday. If Bowler wins, the game will be at Bowler, if Tigerton pulls off the upset, the game will be at Columbus.
“The season started today, again, and we won our first playoff game, which is awesome,” Columbus Catholic coach Marty Draxler said. “We started very slow, obviously not very encouraged by that, but we had balanced scoring.”
Both teams exchanged baskets to start the scoring before the Dons went on a 19-3 run to open up a 21-5 lead and they led by double digits the rest of the game.
Immerfall had six points, Addison Baierl hit a pair of baskets, and the run ended with a layup by Katie Hall after an offensive rebound and nifty pass by Maren Seefluth.
Columbus led 31-16 at halftime and held the Wolves (7-16) scoreless for 9½ minutes during a stretch of the second half to push its advantage to 49-20.
Addison Baierl added 12 points as the nine Dons scored in the victory.
“Basketball is simple in my opinion,” Draxler said. “You’ve got to rebound, you’ve got to cash in on turnovers, and you’ve got to shoot well. We need balanced scoring. Hailey Roehl was hurt, she was averaging eight points a game, so someone else has to pick up that slack. I’m assuming that’s going to be a group effort.”
Simeon Shult had 12 points and nine rebounds for Wisconsin Valley Lutheran.
Dons 63, Wolves 31
Wisconsin Valley Lutheran 16 15 – 31
Marshfield Columbus Catholic 31 32 – 63
WISCONSIN VALLEY LUTHERAN (31): Sara Sawyer 1-4 0-0 3, Cassidy Maroszek 3-13 1-5 7, Lydia Schult 0-2 0-0 0, Simeon Schult 3-11 6-8 12, Isabella Montgomery 0-0 0-0 0, Laura Hetheman 0-1 0-1 0, Shealan Kelly 0-0 0-0 0, Lilia Geis 1-2 0-0 2, Sydney Lillenthal 1-1 0-0 2, Caitlyn Muraski 0-0 0-0 0, Riley Cate 0-0 0-0 0, Chassiya Betts 2-5 1-2 5. FG: 11-39. FT: 8-16. 3-pointers: 1-8 (Sawyer 1-3, Betts 0-1, Maroszek 0-4). Rebounds: 24 (S. Schult 9). Turnovers: 19. Fouls: 11. Fouled out: none. Record: 7-16.
COLUMBUS CATHOLIC (63): Annie Baierl 1-2 1-2 3, Annika Brown 2-3 0-0 4, Morgan Albrecht 3-14 2-3 8, Maren Seefluth 2-6 0-0 4, Addison Baierl 6-12 0-0 12, Katie Hall 1-4 0-0 2, Zoe Stratman 0-1 0-0 0, Marissa Immerfall 11-14 2-4 25, Sydney Mauritz 1-2 0-0 3, Holly Dean 0-2 0-0 0, Erynn Meece 0-0 0-0 0, Ashley Dean 0-0 0-0 0, Emily Jicinsky 1-1 0-0 2. FG: 27-60. FT: 5-9. 3-pointers: 2-17 (Immerfall 1-1, Mauritz 1-2, Ad. Baierl 0-4, Albrecht 0-10). Rebounds: 35 (Hall 7). Turnovers: 12. Fouls: 18. Fouled out: none. Record: 12-10.