This story is sponsored by Victory Apparel
By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
STRATFORD – The end of January and early February are the dog days of the high school basketball season.
Teams are past the half-way point of the season and some look ahead to the postseason, or maybe even the end.
Undefeated Stratford didn’t fall into the trap. The Tigers scored 17 of the first 19 points and rolled to its 14th-straight victory, an 86-59 win over Wausau Newman Catholic on Tuesday night at Stratford High School.
Ben Barten scored Stratford’s first seven points and five other players hit the scoring column in the 17-2 run in the opening five minutes.
Newman Catholic held even for much of the rest of the first half until Stratford turned up the defense and end the half of the 13-6 run to take aa 49-27 lead into intermission.
Vaughn Breit had a dunk and Teddy Redman scored six points in the final minute, including a thunderous one-hand dunk following a steal just before the buzzer.
“You worry sometimes, at the end of January, because we were a little flat (last game) against Phillips,” Stratford coach Curt Schmidt said. “We didn’t shoot the ball well. Tonight, I thought we did a much better job of making shots and defensively, I thought we were pretty good.
“It’s a challenge. The end of January is the point in the season where you see teams regress and get another burst. It takes discipline. The thing we preach more than anything is don’t become fat cats, don’t become complacent. Don’t let good become the enemy of great.”
Stratford led by at least 20 points the rest of the way, and pushed it to as much as 32 on three occasions. The TIgers had 16 players enter the game, giving a number of younger players and reserves a chance to gain some valuable experience.
“We played a lot of guys, but we played really good defense and really shot inside-out pretty well,” Schmidt said. “Kids can sometimes play down to opponents. I didn’t think that was the case tonight. We were crisp.”
Redman led the way with 21 points, Barten finished with 14 points and eight rebounds, and Breit chipped in 12 points for Stratford, which is now 10-0 in the Marawood Conference South Division. Eleven Tigers in all scored in the game as they shot 60 percent (35-for-58) from the field and were 11 of 21 from 3-point range.
Nick Brenner and Charlie McCarty each scored 10 points to lead Newman Catholic (2-12, 2-9 Marawood South).
Stratford will play in the Border Battle at La Crosse Central on Saturday against Spring Grove (Minn.).
Tigers 86, Cardinals 59
Wausau Newman Catholic 27 32 – 59
Stratford 49 37 – 86
WAUSAU NEWMAN CATHOLIC (59): Nick Brenner 3-4 1-2 10, Mason Prey 3-6 0-0 7, Thomas Bates 1-6 0-0 2, Quinn Reeves 3-5 2-2 10, Isaac Seidel 3-8 0-0 8, Jacob Pfiffner 3-4 0-0 6, Kyle Lang 2-3 1-6 5, Ben Bates 1-3 0-0 2, Joe Zeimetz 0-2 0-0 0, Charlie McCarty 4-9 0-1 10. FG: 23-50. FT: 4-11. 3-pointers: 9-19 (Brenner 3-4, Reeves 2-3, Seidel 2-5, Prey 1-2, McCarty 1-3, Pfiffner 0-1, Bates 0-1). Rebounds: 22 (Seidel 8). Turnovers: 16. Fouls: 7. Fouled out: none. Record: 2-12, 2-9 Marawood Conference South Division.
STRATFORD (86): Teddy Redman 9-15 0-0 21, Cody Miller 1-4 0-0 3, Kale Weisenberger 0-0 0-0 0, Kam Koft 0-1 0-0 0, Max Vanderhoof 3-4 0-0 8, Chandler Schmidt 2-5 2-4 7, Dawson Danen 3-3 0-0 7, Tyler Lappe 0-0 0-0 0, Chase Flink 1-2 0-0 2, Jake Skroch 1-1 0-0 3, Keegan Weiler 2-2 0-0 4, Caden Bruesewitz 0-0 0-0 0, Vaughn Breit 5-10 0-0 12, Camden Daul 2-2 1-1 5, Ben Barten 6-8 2-4 14, Zack Seitz 0-1 0-0 0. FG: 35-58. FT: 5-9. 3-pointers: 11-21 (Redman 3-6, Vanderhoof 2-3, Breit 2-3, Danen 1-1, Skroch 1-1, Schmidt 1-2, Miller 1-4, Flink 0-1). Rebounds: 30 (Barten 8). Turnovers: 14. Fouls: 13. Fouled out: none. Record: 14-0, 10-0 Marawood Conference South Division.