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By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
STRATFORD – The Stratford boys basketball team turned to a defensive approach in its WIAA Division 4 regional quarterfinal against Abbotsford on Tuesday night.
The Tigers pressured the top of the Abbotsford offense and forced 29 turnovers, never trailed, and rolled to a 66-26 victory at Stratford High School.
The No. 4 seed Stratford (12-11) will host No. 5 Necedah (12-11) for a D-4 regional semifinal Friday at 7 p.m. Necedah knocked off Iola-Scandinavia 51-31 on Tuesday.
The Tigers forced turnovers on eight of Abbotsford’s first 11 possessions and raced out to a 13-2 lead after a pair of fast-break layups by Ashton Wrensch.
After Abbotsford scored four points, Stratford ripped of seven straight to take a 20-6 lead and led by double digits the rest of the way.
Check out the statewide WIAA regional scoreboard here
“We were fortunate to be able to play a little deeper (on the bench),” Stratford coach Curt Schmidt said. “When you run that (pressure) defense you have to have the energy. The guys did a really good job of maintaining pressure on the ball and making things difficult.”
Brady Schmidt’s third 3-pointer of the half, and two quick hoops by Reid Miller and Wrensch helped push Stratford’s lead to 34-12 at halftime.
Sophomore guard Drew Bruesewitz scored nine of his 12 points in the first 8 minutes of the second half with a 3-pointer and two three-point plays, and John Seitz had a pair of 3s to help the Tigers run the lead to 54-22 and they were able to finish it off from there.
Schmidt nailed five 3-pointers and had a game-high 15 points, and Seitz and Wrensch both added 13 points for Stratford.
Brandon Diedrich topped Abbotsford (2-23) with nine points.
“I’m hoping we can maintain the energy,” Curt Schmidt said. “We haven’t been shooting it great all year, but tonight we were around 40 percent. We’ll see what we’ve got (Friday).
“Since Braeden (Schueller) went down with the injury, the last five or six games, we’ve only been shooting in the high 30s (percentage) and that’s not a recipe for success. But we’ve been hanging in there and battling hard. The kids are playing hard and we had a pretty balanced scoring attack tonight. You need that.”
Tigers 66, Falcons 26
Abbotsford 12 14 – 26
Stratford 34 32 – 66
ABBOTSFORD (26): Andres Bautista 0-0 0-0 0, Evan Reis 1-2 0-0 2, Noah Schraufnagel 0-1 0-0 0, Brandon Diedrich 3-12 1-2 9, Esteban Gomez 0-1 0-0 0, Gatlin Faber 0-0 0-0 0, Uriel Ochoa 1-3 0-0 2, A.J. Brodhagen 1-5 0-0 2, Jacob Hirsch 1-2 0-0 2, Blake Bargender 1-2 0-2 2, Adam Diedrich 3-7 1-4 7. FG: 11-35. FT: 2-8. 3-pointers: 2-13 (B. Diedrich 2-9, Bargender 0-1, Schraufnagel 0-1, A. Diedrich 0-2). Rebounds: 25 (A. Diedrich 7). Turnovers: 29. Fouls: 9. Fouled out: none. Record: 2-23.
STRATFORD (66): John Seitz 4-13 2-2 13, Reid Miller 1-3 0-0 2, Ashton Wrensch 6-13 0-0 13, Drew Bruesewitz 4-5 2-2 12, Caleb Wrensch 0-0 0-0 0, Ben Zuelke 2-4 0-0 4, Kaden Foster 1-1 0-0 2, Payton Glenn 0-1 0-0 0, Henry Zaleski 2-6 0-0 5, Jett Schoenherr 0-0 0-0 0, Izaiah Hadlock 0-4 0-0 0, Brady Schmidt 5-10 0-0 15, Alec Chapel 0-1 0-0 0, Brandon Gebelein 0-1 0-0 0. FG: 25-62. FT: 4-4. 3-pointers: 12-32 (Schmidt 5-10, Seitz 3-7, Bruesewitz 2-3, Zaleski 1-2, A. Wrensch 1-5, Hadlock 0-1, Chapel 0-1, Gebelein 0-1, Miller 0-2). Rebounds: 33 (Seitz 6). Turnovers: 14. Fouls: 14. Fouled out: none. Record: 12-11.