By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
NEILLSVILLE – For two and one-half quarters, Neillsville looked plenty capable of sending the Marshfield Columbus Catholic boys basketball team its second straight loss.
The Dons would have none of that.
Columbus outscored the Warriors by 22 points over the final 11:40 of the game to win going away, 72-52, in a Cloverbelt Conference East Division game Friday night at Neillsville High School.
After losing at home by 25 points to Colby on Tuesday, Dons senior David Green said there was a sense of urgency as the game tightened up.
“It was only human to feel down, we got crushed at our own house,” Green said. “I mean, a loss is a loss. It’s really hard to go 29-0 and win the state championship, so it probably was a good thing for us. It was great to come back and win like this.”
Neillsville led 31-29 at halftime and hit three 3-pointers in the first 4 minutes of third quarter to maintain its two-point lead at 44-42.
Then things went ice cold for the Warriors.
Neillsville (9-4, 7-3 Cloverbelt East) completely fell apart offensively, making just 2 of its final 24 shots and Columbus suddenly ran away with the game.
Jared Boyle scored seven of the final nine points of the third quarter and sparked a 14-0 run that ended with a 3-pointer by Dodge Langreck with 6:24 remaining in the fourth quarter.
Neillsville twice closed to within nine points, but the Dons finished off the game with a 13-2 run for good measure. The Dons made 10 of 13 free throws in the final 3:36 to ice it, and improve to 12-1 overall and 9-1 in the Cloverbelt East.
“I was proud of our kids,” Columbus coach Joe Konieczny said. “After Tuesday the mood in practice Wednesday was pretty down. For them to bounce back with that kind of effort tonight – just extremely proud.”
Boyle led five Dons in double figures with 16 points. Langreck added 15, and Mike Iwanski, Green and Tyler Mancl each had 12. The balanced scoring it nothing new for Columbus.
“That’s kind of what we did the first time we played them (Neillsville),” Konieczny said. “That just shows that they don’t care who does what, that they are very unselfish.”
Spencer defeated Owen-Withee 51-37 on Friday, keeping pace with the Dons for the top spot in the conference standings. The two square off next Thursday at Columbus Catholic High School at 7:30 p.m. Columbus won the first matchup of the season, 56-43 at Spencer on Dec. 10.
Dons 72, Warriors 52
Columbus 11 18 22 21 – 72
Neillsville 11 20 13 8 – 52
COLUMBUS (72): Mike Iwanski 3-4 5-5 12, Dodge Langreck 6-11 1-2 15, Travis Pischel 2-6 0-0 5, David Green 3-6 6-8 12, Tyler Mancl 3-9 5-7 12, Jared Boyle 6-14 2-2 16, Paul Selz 0-2 0-0 0, Brandon Nikolai 0-2 0-0 0, Kyle Olson 0-0 0-0 0. FG: 23-54. FT: 19-24. 3-pointer: 7-27 (Langreck 2-6, Boyle 2-7, Iwanski 1-1, Pischel 1-3, Mancl 1-5, Green 0-3, Selz 0-1, Nikolai 0-1). Rebounds: 26 (Iwanski 7). Total fouls: 13. Fouled out: none. Record: 12-1, 9-1 Cloverbelt East.
NEILLSVILLE (52): Cain Trunkel 6-14 2-2 16, Mitchell Erickson 2-9 0-0 4, Dan Opelt 2-2 0-0 4,Tyler Ehlen 2-8 0-0 5, Paul Retzlaff 3-10 2-5 8, Sterling Backaus 4-9 0-0 11, Ben Perushek 0-0 0-0 0, Ryan Naughton 1-3 0-0 2, Mingoo Lee 0-0 0-0 0, Logan Grap 0-3 0-0 0. FG: 20-63. FT: 4-8. 3-pointers: 8-30 (Backaus 3-12, Trunkel 2-5, Opelt 2-2, Ehlen 1-5, Erickson 0-5, Grap 0-1). Rebounds: 30 (Trunkel 12). Total fouls: 20. Fouled out: Naughton. Record: 9-4, 7-3 Cloverbelt East.
Contact Paul Lecker by e-mail at paul@marshfieldareasports.com.
