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By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
MARSHFIELD – This season began the same way that last season ended for the Marshfield Columbus Catholic boys basketball team.
Prentice took advantage inside and overcame a seven-point deficit to down the Dons 46-37 in the season opener for both teams Tuesday at the Columbus Catholic Gym.
Columbus jumped out to a 20-13 lead after the first quarter, but made just 7 of 37 shots the rest of the way and lost to Prentice for the second straight time. The Buccaneers beat Columbus 53-36 in a WIAA Division 4 sectional semifinal last March.
“They switched to a zone in the second quarter and we missed a bunch of wide-open shots,” Columbus coach Joe Konieczny said. “We weren’t really patient enough to go inside-out and we should have been.“
Columbus used a full-court pressure defense to force eight turnovers in the first quarter and jump out to an early lead.
Jared Boyle hit three straight shots, Paul Selz drilled a 3-pointer and Travis Pischel and Mike Iwanski each had a pair of steals that led to layups as the Dons built a 17-11 lead.
Tyler Derfus converted a three-point play in the final minute of the quarter to cap a 20-13 first period.
A layup by Pischel put Columbus up 22-18 early in the second quarter, but that would be the last points of the half for the Dons.
Prentice scored eight-straight points to close out the half, holding Columbus to 12 consecutive missed shots by switching to a zone defense and took a 26-22 lead into halftime.
“When we can’t score, we can’t set up our pressure and we’re a different team,” Konieczny said. “It was a similar situation to back in March when we played them in the playoffs. We didn’t know how to attack a zone, we didn’t go inside-out, we settled for the long ones and when we missed, we couldn’t press and it just snowballed.”
Columbus’ cold shooting continued into the second half. The Dons cut the deficit to 30-26 after a basket by Iwanski, but Prentice used another 8-0 run to open up a double-digit lead as Columbus missed four straight shots.
Iwanski’s 3-pointer cut the Buccaneers lead to 38-29 at the end of the third, and Boyle and Selz connected from long range to start the fourth, bringing Columbus to within six at 41-35 with 2:37 to go in the game. Iwanski led Columbus with 11 points and was the only Don to shoot higher than 50 percent from the floor (5-for-8).
The Dons wouldn’t get any closer. Prentice outscored Columbus 5-2 over the final 2:20 to provide the final margin.
Tyler Enders, Prentice’s 6-foot-4 center, scored 18 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to lead the Bucs.
Columbus has just two days to get over the loss as it heads into games against Pittsville on Friday and Wisconsin Rapids Assumption on Saturday at the Cranberry Classic at Assumption High School.
“When it comes right down to it, we’re a team that has to make shots,” Konieczny said. “We’re trying to get as good as we can be when the conference season starts (Nov. 30 at Loyal). We have 18 conference games and one of our first goals is to finish at or near the top of the conference. We have three games against three good opponents to see what we need to work on.”
Buccaneers 46, Dons 37
Prentice 13 13 12 8 – 46
Columbus 20 2 7 8 – 37
PRENTICE (46): Brian Kraegenbrink 3-5 1-4 8, Kyle Nussberger 0-0 0-0 0, Sam Hartmann 2-7 1-5 6, Casey Heikkinen 1-1 1-1 3, Trevor Maki 0-0 0-0 0, Nate Erickson 3-9 3-5 9, Teague Shoup 0-3 2-3 2, Travis Judell 0-0 0-0 0, Tyler Enders 5-6 8-11 18, Trevor Komarek 0-0 0-0 0. FG: 14-31. FT: 16-29. 3-pointers: 2-7 (Hartmann 1-3, Kraegenbrink 1-2, Erickson 0-1, Shoup 0-1). Rebounds: 39 (Enders 10, Erickson 9, Kraegenbrink 8). Total fouls: 11. Fouled out: none. Record: 1-0.
COLUMBUS (37): Mike Iwanski 5-8 0-0 11, Jordan Derfus 0-0 0-0 0, Travis Pischel 3-11 0-0 6, Brandon Nikolai 1-5 0-0 2, Tyler Derfus 1-7 1-1 3, Jared Boyle 4-15 0-0 9, Paul Selz 2-6 0-0 6, David Cleveland 0-1 0-0 0, Zach Strobel 0-2 0-1 0. FG: 16-56. FT: 1-2. 3-pointers: 4-25 (Selz 2-5, Iwanski 1-2, Boyle 1-6, Pischel 0-5, T. Derfus 0-5, Nikolai 0-2). Rebounds: 20 (Cleveland 6). Total fouls: 24. Fouled out: none. Record: 0-1.
Video highlights of the Dons’ opener at allmarshfield.com