This story is sponsored by Total Electric
By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
MARSHFIELD – After having its 13-game winning streak snapped on Saturday against Kaukauna, the Marshfield boys basketball team took to its home court for the fourth time in a week in search of starting another one.
Following a 3-pointer by Eau Claire North on its opening possession, Marshfield ripped off eight-straight points and never looked back, cruising to a 63-49 nonconference victory on Tuesday night at Marshfield High School.
As North tried to take out Marshfield’s perimeter game, the Tigers went inside – and with much success.
Owen Hanson scored six quick points, Bennett Lang hit one of Marshfield’s two 3-pointers in the game, and Luke LeMoine added a hoop to push Marshfield’s lead to 17-7 seven minutes in.
North made a run late in the half, cutting the deficit to four after Tyler Barrows was fouled attempting a 3-pointer and made all three free throws, but Brooks Hinson drove and scored at the buzzer, giving Marshfield a 28-22 lead heading into the break.
The Tigers came out of the locker room hot, making seven of their first nine field goal attempts, four of the baskets coming from Luke LeMoine. Following four free throws from Hanson, Marshfield led 44-29.
Freshman Chris Pohl scored nine of his 12 points in another Marshfield run as it built the lead to as much as 19 before settling for the 14-point win. The Tigers are now 16-5 this season, while Eau Claire North falls to 2-16.
Hanson finished with 20 points and nine rebounds, and LeMoine had 16 points, both on 8-for-11 shooting from the field as they were able to score inside at will.
“Eau Claire North has some skill and they play hard, and we saw that tonight,” Marshfield coach Chris Fischer said. “They basically took Brooks out of the game, and we had to find other ways to score. We didn’t have much energy in the first half, but we did much, much better in the second half.
“The one thing North does is take away passing lanes. Sometimes it’s very difficult to make that backdoor pass. We had the courage to make that throw, even though your teammate may not look open. Owen had another great game, tremendous footwork again. Luke was good in the paint and I thought Sam Meverden had some good minutes off the bench (four points, seven rebounds). Chris Pohl was good in the paint as well.”
Marshfield will finally get some much-needed time off before playing at Stevens Point next Tuesday, Feb. 14.
“We need rest,” Fischer said. “It’s been a tough stretch. A lot of our guys are playing heavy minutes. We have a couple of guys who are banged up and unable to play tonight. We have to find a way to recharge our batteries. We played so well in December and January, and the last few games we’ve maybe fallen short of that, but we are still playing good. We can’t let good become the enemy of great. We’re still playing good basketball, just not at the level we were.”
Tigers 63, Huskies 49
Eau Claire North 22 27 – 49
Marshfield 28 35 – 63
EAU CLAIRE NORTH (49): T.J. Johnson 0-2 1-2 1, C.J. Shepler 5-8 0-0 11, Carter Seibel 0-0 0-0 0, Elliott Bessen 1-10 0-0 2, Aaron Gust 4-4 0-0 11, Tyler Barrows 2-8 3-3 8, Maddux Geurts 0-0 0-0 0, Andrew Rovksvold 7-14 2-2 16. FG: 19-46. FT: 6-7. 3-pointers: 5-22 (Gust 3-3, Shepler 1-3, Barrows 1-6, Rovksvold 0-3, Bessen 0-7). Rebounds: 17 (Shepler 3, Burrows 3, Seibel 3). Turnovers: 11. Fouls: 12. Fouled out: none. Record: 2-16.
MARSHFIELD (63): Luke LeMoine 8-11 0-0 16, Braxton Kurth 0-1 0-0 0, Bennett Lang 1-3 0-1 3, Jeff Marsh 1-2 0-0 2, Brooks Hinson 2-6 0-0 4, Sam Meverden 2-4 0-0 4, Ryan Donovan 1-3 0-0 2, Carson Matis 0-0 0-0 0, Chris Pohl 5-5 1-2 12, Owen Hanson 8-11 4-4 20. FG: 28-46. FT: 5-7. 3-pointers: 2-9 (Pohl 1-1, Lang 1-3, LeMoine 0-1, Kurth 0-1, Donovan 0-1, Hinson 0-2). Rebounds: 31 (Hanson 9). Turnovers: 15. Fouls: 9. Fouled out: none. Record: 16-5.