This story is sponsored by Norm E Lane Farm
By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
MARSHFIELD – Marshfield Columbus Catholic coach Joe Konieczny said the battle for the Cloverbelt Conference East Division boys basketball championship this year is going to be wide open, with a number of teams fairly even when it comes to talent.
That being said, it makes every game, especially when playing on your home court, all the more important.
On Tuesday, Columbus used a 17-0 run that bridged the final 3 minutes of the first half and first 2 minutes of the third quarter to open up a 20-point lead and held off a late rally to down Spencer 56-45 at Columbus.
The win improves the Dons’ record to 4-3 and 3-1 in the Cloverbelt East, one game behind Friday’s opponent, undefeated Augusta (5-0, 4-0 Cloverbelt East).
“We think the conference this year is pretty even,” Konieczny said. “Colby’s probably the pick (to win it), and then after that it’s wide open for four, five, six teams. Anytime we can beat one of them, we’ll take it.”
Jared Boyle scored 21 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, and Travis Pischel added 18 points – both hitting four 3-pointers as the Dons made 10 of 22 from long range.
Both teams struggled early with shooting, but one hot streak by Columbus late in the first half made the difference in the game.
Pischel, Paul Selz and Boyle each made 3-pointers on consecutive trips down court and a rebound and basket by Pischel wiith 1:06 to go in the half was the final points in a 12-0 run that gave Columbus a 30-15 halftime lead.
“Earlier this year we had a lot of trouble shooting 3s, at least consistently,” Pischel said. “Tonight, we were finally get a lot of people putting down a lot of shots. It helped spread the defense out and we were able to drive inside and kick to some open shots. Once you knock down one or two it opens up the rest of it.”
Pischel started the third quarter with five straight points before Spencer’s Wyatt Phillips scored at the 5:43 mark to end the Dons’ 17-0 run and cut the lead to 35-17.
“They definitely got the hot hand shooting and started knocking down shots,” said Spencer assistant coach Jason Gorst, who is serving as the head coach while Randy Reckner is on a family-related leave of absence from the team. “Defensively, I didn’t think that we were closing out real well at the time. We got caught up in little bit of rotation while they were moving the ball around real quick and getting some real good looks at the rim.”
Spencer trailed 43-25 heading into the fourth before finally finding its offensive rhythm.
Luke Kromanaker hit two 3-pointers and Phil Ivacic added another to spark a 12-2 run to cut the Dons’ lead to 49-40 with 2:28 left.
Columbus made 11 of 16 free throws in the fourth, including seven of 10 in the final 1:25, as the Rockets got no closer than eight the rest of the way.
“We made some shots finally (in the second quarter), which was good, we were able to set up our press,” Konieczny said. “For the most part, we played a little bit harder during that stretch. I thought, at the end, we made a lot of mistakes and went right back to some old habits. We’re really happy we got a win, but there’s definitely some things we can do to improve.”
Phillips finished with 16 points and eight rebounds for Spencer, which hosts Granton on Friday.
Dons 56, Rockets 45
Spencer 8 7 10 20 – 45
Columbus 12 18 13 13 – 56
SPENCER (45): Wyatt Phillips 7-16 1-2 16, Luke Kromanaker 4-8 0-0 10, Phil Ivacic 2-8 0-0 5, Steven Gilboy 2-8 0-0 4, Jordan Buss 1-3 2-2 4, Sam Cattanach 2-5 0-2 4, Ryan Krause 0-1 0-0 0, Adam Skrzeczkoski 0-0 0-0 0. FG: 19-52. FT: 3-6. 3-pointers: 4-20 (Kromanaker 2-5, Phillips 1-8, Ivacic 1-5, Gilboy 0-3, Buss 0-1). Rebounds: 31 (Phillips 8). Assists: 10 (Phillips 4). Turnovers: 13. Total fouls: 21. Fouled out: Ivacic, Buss. Record: 1-2 overall and Cloverbelt East.
COLUMBUS (56): Jared Boyle 7-14 3-4 21, Travis Pischel 6-19 2-3 18, Paul Selz 3-10 2-3 10, Brandon Nikolai 0-2 3-4 3, Zach Strobel 1-3 0-0 2, Tyler Derfus 0-1 1-2 1, Mike Iwanski 0-3 1-2 1, David Cleveland 0-0 0-2 0. FG: 17-52. FT: 12-20. 3-pointers: 10-22 (Pischel 4-9, Boyle 4-5, Selz 2-6, Nikolai 0-1, Derfus 0-1). Rebounds: 31 (Boyle 10). Assists: 11 (Nikolai 4). Turnovers: 8. Total fouls: 8. Fouled out: none. Record: 4-3, 3-1 Cloverbelt East.