This story is sponsored by Total Electric
By Steve Pilz
For MarshfieldAreaSports.com
STRATFORD – The Stratford Tigers boys basketball squad left little doubt about where they might end up the next couple seasons – that would be in contention again at the top of the Marawood Conference South Division.
The Tigers couldn’t win the Marawood South this season going into Thursday’s game with Auburndale, but they did send a strong message, thumping the front-running visitors 62-42 in a game that was close to over once the second half began.
While the Tigers couldn’t win the conference title, they could, and did, throw a monkey wrench into the works. A Marathon win, with an Auburndale loss, would give the Red Raiders a share of the prestigious Marawood South title, until Marathon lost 69-68 to Wisconsin Rapid Assumption. That gives Auburndale sole possession of the league title at 13-3 with Stratford, Marathon and Assumption all tying for second at 12-4.
All that seemed secondary to Tigers coach Curt Schmidt, who couldn’t say enough about his team’s defensive effort.
“We played really good defense tonight,” Schmidt said. “I was very happy with the overall team effort. A lot of guys went in and contributed tonight. I was very pleased with the overall intensity. We took care of the ball overall and really helped each other out on their better players.”
While the Tigers present is impressive, as their record sits at 18-4, their future, as aforementioned, seems equally imposing as they boast a deep roster full of sophomores and juniors none more impressive than 6-foot-5 sophomore Ben Barten, who dominated the paint in the second half putting up 14 points. He finished with 22 and was the only Tiger scoring in double figures scoring, but he had plenty of support as Stratford had nine players in the scoring column.
The league-leading Apaches could never get going. Trailing by six at the half, baskets by Barten, Vaughn Breit and a 3-pointer by Lance Heidmann put Stratford up 37-25.
Stratford got a little deliberate on offense after that, forcing the Apaches to go to man-to-man defensively, but with Barten dominating the inside and the Tigers choking the lane on defense, Auburndale ran out of options.
“The thing that really stood out to me was our defense,” Schmidt said. “We were able to play man the whole game against an Auburndale team that was averaging like 62 points per game. They’re fairly high-powered. I was proud of our defensive intensity.”
Both teams open WIAA playoff action next week. Stratford hosts Viroqua in a Division 3 regional quarterfinal Tuesday, while No. 1 seed Auburndale (18-4 overall) is off until March 2 when it will host the winner of Tuesday’s Spencer-Athens games in a Division 4 regional semifinal.
Tigers 62, Apaches 42
Auburndale 23 19 – 42
Stratford 29 33 – 62
AUBURNDALE (42): Cooper Weinfurter 2-8 5-7 10, Cale Jacoby 4-10 1-2 9, Cason Schmutzer 3-12 2-3 9, Fletcher Raab 0-1 0-0 0, Cody Trowbridge 0-0 0-0 0, Carter Wilcott 0-0 0-0 0, Colten Yeske 1-3 0-0 2, Cameron Ertl 1-4 0-0 3, Jason Wilcox 0-0 0-0 0, Colton Wright 2-6 4-4 9. FG: 13-44. FT: 12-16. 3-pointers: 4-15 (Schumtzer 1-3, Wright 1-3, Weinfurter 1-4, Ertl 1-4, Raab 0-1). Rebounds: 17 (Schmutzer 6). Record: 18-4, 13-3 Marawood Conference South Division.
STRATFORD (62): Chandler Schmidt 2-5 0-0 5, Okley Wrensch 0-1 2-3 2, Teddy Redman 2-7 1-1 5, Hunter Hannan 0-1 0-0 0, Trent Heckel 2-4 0-0 6, Branden Ackley 2-3 0-0 4, Eli Drexler 0-0 0-0 0, Paul Huther 3-3 1-1 7, Vaughn Breit 3-10 2-4 8, Lance Heidmann 1-4 0-0 3, Benjamin Barten 8-13 6-9 22, Wyatt Curtice 0-0 0-0 0. FG: 23-51. FT: 12-18. 3-pointers: 4-13 (Heckel 2-4, Schmidt 1-2, Heidmann 1-3, Ackley 0-1, Redman 0-1, Breit 0-2). Rebounds: 33 (Barten 11, Breit 9). Record: 18-4, 12-4 Marawood Conference South Division.