Bulldogs Beat Blue Devils to Hold Packerland Lead

The Peshtigo Bulldogs got back on track with a 72-61 win over local rivals and Packerland foes Oconto on Tuesday.
After their first loss of the season in conference play last week, the Bulldogs pulled things together to beat a good Oconto team.
Oconto led 14-11 before a bucket by Kaine Fort and two free throws from Landon Beyer gave Peshtigo a 15-14 lead.
Oconto battled back to take a 24-23 lead, but Peshtigo took things right back after two from Fort. The Bulldogs would lead for the rest of the game.
By halftime, the Bulldogs had a 34-28 lead, which grew to 39-30 in the opening minutes of the second half.
A 3-pointer extended the lead to 48-36 with nine minutes to play. The Blue Devils were able to cut the lead to seven but no closer over the course of the final nine minutes.
Fort played with foul trouble throughout the game for the second straight game, but the rest of the Bulldog roster stepped up Tuesday night.
Fort got his points and rebounds, recording 13 and 14, respectively, but players like Will McMahon, Beyer, and Mason Doberstein each had notable performances as well.
McMahon scored 21 points with 10 rebounds, and Beyer had 17 points with eight rebounds.
“I thought Landon Beyer and Will McMahon played a hell of a game tonight,” Peshtigo coach Jason Boucher said. “They stepped up scoring the basketball.”
Doberstein had 11 points and 10 assists for the Bulldogs.
“I thought Mason Doberstein played a heck of a game tonight. He didn’t have his best scoring night but he controlled the game,” Boucher said. “He had 10 assists tonight. That’s what we need. We need everybody to step up in big games. This is a big win for us on the road.”
The Bulldogs moved to 6-1 in Packerland Conference play, while Oconto dropped to 3-4.
Next up for Peshtigo is a non-conference home game against Menominee on Friday night.
Oconto’s Kadin Baxter scored 22 points, Carter Koch scored 14, and Dominik Baxter finished with 11.
“Kadin’s always there offensively. I just think we lacked a lot of discipline on defense, details, and getting after it, closing out to the shooters the right way. I think that’s what it came down to,” Oconto coach Antowan Epps said. “Individual games are always going to be there, but I’m all about us together, being together as a team and making sure everybody is doing the right things.”
Trenton Hartman had a good night inside before leaving the game injured late. He finished with four points but did the little things throughout the night.
“He got a little dinged up during the game, took a charge, and we appreciate taking charges, sacrificing his body for his teammates. I love that,” Epps said. “We need more guys that are willing to sacrifice their body to get another possession for our team. We’ll check him tomorrow to make sure he’s A-OK for sure.”
Oconto visits Sevastopol (0-7 Packerland) on Friday night.

Cavaliers Use Big 2nd
Half To Beat Wildcats
After a hard-fought first-half battle between the Lena Wildcats and Saint Thomas Aquinas Cavaliers on Thursday, the Cavaliers ran away with things late in the game, winning 69-48.
Lena led 29-27 at halftime. The Wildcats’ final lead of the game was 40-38 in the second half. From there, things went downhill fast.
A 15-0 run, started off by two steals and scores from Caleb Duvall, set the tone for how the rest of the game would go. STAA quickly led 53-40 after a bucket by Henry Piasecki.
Steals like those two by Duvall that turned into points on the other end were a key to the late Cavalier rally.
“We spread the ball around pretty nicely today. We didn’t have the best luck against their 2-1-2 at first, but turning defense into offense for us was the biggest part of that game,” STAA coach Jack Farley said.
Teagan Anderson scored to make it 58-42 not long after, and the Cavaliers ran away with it, closing the game on a 31-8 run.
“We didn’t do the things we needed to do to win the game,” Lena coach Fritz Weidner said. “We were up 40-38 and the next thing we know, it’s 69-48. A 31-8 run, that’s good on them, not so great on us.”
Weidner credited STAA’s 1-3-1 zone for giving his team problems.
“We couldn’t figure it out. We just didn’t execute the way we should,” he said. “That’s what it is. Hats off to them. They did a nice job.”
Lena’s leading scorers were Caleb Schlosser and Logan Graef with 12 and 10, respectively. Mason Spice scored nine, Anthony Seefeldt scored eight, and Reed Hosking scored seven.
STAA scored 42 points in the second half, paced by the trio of Anderson, Ethan Braley, Caleb Duvall, who scored 19, 18, and 17, respectively. Kaiden Bailey added seven points.
“We were missing some bunnies and some free throws at the beginning of the first half,” Farley said. “The second half we started finishing inside a lot better and played progressive basketball.”
Farley added that it was STAA Athletic Director Julie Chilcote’s last day in the position, and his team wanted to send her off with a win.
“She gave the kids a lot of energy today, wanting to win for her,” he said.

Cougars Rally in 2nd
Half to Beat Rebels
Coleman overcame a slow start to stave off defeat against the Laona/Wabeno Rebels on Saturday, 52-42.
After the first half, the Cougars trailed 20-16. having made just seven field goals. In the second half, Coleman’s offense stepped up a notch, scoring 36 points.
Nine different Cougars made at least one field goal in the second half.
Joe Olsen scored 13 points in the game to lead the way. Evan Hockers scored 12 and Tyler Rennie got seven.
Laona-Wabeno scored 15 points off free throws, including nine in the second half.
Adam Seeber’s 16 points were the most for the Rebels.

Menominee Drops
GNC Contest to
Marquette 79-64
Coming into Friday’s Great Northern Conference showdown with Marquette, the Menominee Maroons knew this wasn’t going to be the same Marquette team that they saw last season.
Last year, the Maroons won the teams’ matchups 51-32 and 86-77, although the second game was a three-overtime game that was 52-52 after 32 minutes.
Under first-year head coach Rich Ledy, Marquette’s boys have pushed the pace this season, causing chaos on both ends of the court, firing three-pointers at will, and trying to attack the boards. That’s exactly what they did Friday in a 79-64 win over the reigning GNC champions.
Marquette showed it was going to be aggressive in the first couple minutes, with two Wyatt Lakenen triples giving the team a 6-3 advantage out of the gate. Shortly after, it was 16-6.
Menominee kept things between seven and 10 points for a little while, but Peter Closner ballooned the lead to 16 on his third putback layup of the game to make it 33-17.
The largest the lead would get in the first half was 38-20 on a Kyler Sager transition and-one.
Those two plays were a microcosm of Menominee’s first-half struggles.
“We knew that they were going to push the tempo and we knew they were physical, so our goal was to slow some of that tempo by being uber-aggressive on defense. We knew we wanted to hit people on the boards if we were going to win this game,” Menominee coach Sam Larson said. “I don’t think we slowed the tempo very much and we gave up a lot of offensive rebounds. The two things we knew were possibly going to hurt us and were trying to find solutions to, they hurt us.”
The Maroons responded courtesy of five straight points from Connor Coduti and two Trevor Theuerkauf free throws to cut it to 38-29, but the final six points of the half went the way of the hosts and Marquette led 44-29 at halftime.
Menominee would make a run in the second half. Trailing 51-32, the Maroons reeled off 12 straight points to slice the deficit to seven.
Eli Beal nailed a 3-pointer to get things started, and Kaden Starzynski’s first points of the game capped off the run.
Menominee couldn’t get it any closer than that, however. The Maroons trailed 58-48 after three quarters, and Marquette ran away a little bit in the fourth with a 10-3 run to start the frame.
Things finished 79-64 after a few late Menominee buckets. The loss drops the Maroons to 0-2 in GNC play, while Marquette is 1-2.
“I think that’s a really good Marquette team, better than what their record indicates, because that team probably plays with more tempo than anybody we’ve seen this year yet,” Larson said. “That’s a change for people to adjust to. I thought they were really aggressive, they racked it to the rim hard, and they dictated a lot of the things that happened in this game. I thought we were very reactive to what they did.”
Theuerkauf scored a game-high 26 points for Menominee. Eli Beal and Tanner Theuerkauf each scored 11 and Coduti had nine.
“If you take how Trevor attacked throughout the game, I thought he did exactly what we needed him to do,” Larson said. “Now I need to bring a couple other guys with him to do the same thing. If we can get that developed, we’re going to be pretty tough.”
For Marquette, Jaxon Jurmu scored 18, Jacob MacPhee scored 15, and Sager got 13. Lakenen finished with 11 and Closner had 10.

Panthers Win Shootout
With NEWCHS 105-75
The offensive floodgates opened for the Oconto Falls Panthers on Friday night as they won their second game of the season, a 105-75 defeat of Northeast Wisconsin Christian Home School.
Braden Vandermoss led Oconto Falls with 29 points. He made 10 of 15 field goals, including five of nine 3-pointers. He added six rebounds and three assists.
Five Panthers scored double-digit points. Caden Birr scored 15, Kody Vorpahl and Alex Haines each scored 12, and Jameson Beaman made four of his five field goals to finish with 10 points.
Haines’ five assists were a Panther-best.
Oconto Falls led 53-42 at halftime and followed it up with another 50-point second half.

Bulldogs Bounced
by Blazers for First
Packerland Loss
Peshtigo stumbled for the first time in M&O Conference play Friday in a 69-61 loss to Green Bay NEW Lutheran.
Bulldog big man Kaine Fort got in early foul trouble and missed about half of the first half, and the Blazers punished Peshtigo for it, going to Tristian Lynch early and often.
Lynch scored 12 first-half points to lead his team to a 39-29 lead at halftime.
“They took advantage of Kaine being out with Lynch posting up our smaller guards, but the way we played in the first half, it was still a 10-point game. We had to regroup at halftime,” Peshtigo coach Jason Boucher said.
Peshtigo came out of the first half sluggish, the same way they started the first half, Boucher said. Still, they cut it to six with about two minutes to go. That’s when NEW buckled down and held on to win the game.
“The ball didn’t bounce our way a couple times and we fouled, but give NEW some credit. They played good tonight, they shot well tonight,” Boucher said. “It’s not ideal to lose a conference game, but that’s only our first loss in the conference, so we’ve got to get ready for next week.”
Lynch finished with a game-high 26 and Elijah Meerstein scored 15. Jack Henscher scored 13 off four 3-pointers and a free throw.
Peshtigo’s Mason Doberstein scored 21, hitting five 3-pointers, including three in the first half. Fort came back from foul trouble to score 11, mostly in the second half.
Will McMahon and Grant Bauman each scored eight, Landon Beyer scored seven, and Kavin Kleikamp got six.

Mustangs Run
Away From
Marines in NEC Play
Little Chute gave the Marinette Marines a rude welcome to town on Friday night, with the Mustangs winning the teams’ North Eastern Conference matchup 74-23.
For the Mustangs, 10 players scored in the first half and they led 47-15 at the break. Only four players scored for Marinette.
Dominic Smerchek had six of his team-best 11 points in the first half for the Marines.
“Little Chute’s 2-3 zone and press forced us into turnovers and we struggled to score,” Marinette coach Connor Nelson said. “Little Chute was very long defensively and tipped a lot of our passes.”

Wolverines Win
Non-Conference
Battle With Chiefs
Tegan Werner and the Crivitz Wolverines were able to withstand a 33-point game from Dawson Schmidt in a 69-59 win over Shiocton on Saturday.
Schmidt had 10 rebounds to go with his game-high 33 points from 11-24 shooting. Bennett Schmidt also had 15 with nine rebounds.
Werner’s 22 points were the Wolverines’ best. He was 8-19 shooting with four rebounds, four assists, and four steals.
Sean Christiansen had 11 rebounds and 18 points on 8-13 shooting and Brady Tadisch scored 10 to go with seven rebounds.
Jackson Flowers had seven points and 10 rebounds.

Panthers Fall
to Irish 55-45
Oconto Falls was beaten 55-45 by Freedom on Thursday, the Panthers’ fifth loss of 10 or less points in their last seven games.
After trailing 31-23 at halftime, the Panthers hung tough in the second half but couldn’t put up the offense needed to overcome the deficit.
Alex Haines and Kody Vorpahl scored 13 and 12 points, respectively. Both had seven rebounds each. Vorpahl was a perfect 4-4 from the field.
Caden Birr scored nine and Carter Hill had eight.
Freedom’s leader was Ashton Peterson, who scored 21 points on 9-16 shooting.

Cougars Pull Away
From Eagles to
Claim Home Win
Defense was the name of the game for Coleman as the Cougars beat Suring 56-20 in a home game Thursday.
No one on Coleman scored more than 11 points, but nine players scored at least three points.
Victor Kostreva scored 11 points, Evan Hockers got 10, and Joe Olsen scored 10. Logan Kurth chipped in six.
Suring’s leading scorer was Ethan Lally with eight points.
Both teams scored the same amount of points in both halves. Suring scored 10 in each half and Coleman scored 28 in both periods.

Mustangs Beat Panthers
With Big Second Half
A disappointing second half from Oconto Falls saw the Little Chute Mustangs run away from the Panthers for a 78-46 win.
Despite how comfortable the lead looks in the final scorebook, the Panthers were right there in the first half and trailed just 36-30 at the halftime break. The Mustangs had a 42-16 advantage in the second half.
Caden Birr scored 15 points, all on 3-pointers, to lead the Panthers. Kody Vorpahl was 6-7 from the field to finish with 14 points. Alex Haines and Braden Vandermoss scored eight and seven, respectively.

Marines Second Half
Comeback Falls Short
in Loss to Spartans
It ended in defeat, but the Marinette Marines put on their best offensive performance of the season Monday against Luxemburg-Casco.
After trailing by as many as 18 points, Marinette cut the lead to a point multiple times but couldn’t ever take the lead. It ended 75-70 in favor of the Spartans.
Marinette’s full-court press forced more than 20 turnovers, helping to turn defense into offense.
“The guys played hard and we had our best offensive outing of the year. Excited to see us build positive momentum,” Marinette coach Connor Nelson said. “Huge shoutouts to Ducane and Smerchek for their offensive and defensive performances.”
Dominic Smerchek scored 26 points to lead all scorers and Cale Ducane scored 21, including 19 in the second half.
Sam Sommerfeldt got 11 as well.
Chase Bukouricz scored 23 to lead the Spartans to victory.

Lena Attempts Second Half
Comeback, Fall Short Against Niagara
The Niagara boys started Tuesday nights match up with the Lena Wildcats with a decent scoring jump as they got ahead 25-10 at the half. But a scrappy Lena crew were ready to just give up as they fired in 40 second half points to narrow the lead to 61-50 by games end.
 That first half was all Niagara as the Badgers took the lead off great shooting from Tommy Martin and Blake Holmes.
Lena however was ready to throw down a three point bonanza in the second with Mason Spice hitting three, while Reed Hoskings, Logan Greaf and Caleb Schlosser all hit one each.
Niagara was led by the nights top performer Nick Krueger with 16. Holmes finished the action with 14 points while Martin chipped in 12 to the winning effort.
Lena was led by  Hosking with 15 points and Anthony Seefeldt with 10. Spice chipped in nine.

Rangers Slip Past
Thunderhawks 56-51
Wausaukee stayed hot with a 56-51 win over Oneida Nation on Thursday. The Rangers’ win was their third in four games.
Layne Rowley scored 17 points to pace the Rangers. Connor Schroeder scored 14 and Dustin Lang scored 10. Danny Suennen chipped in nine as well.
Oneida Nation’s Ethan Danforth scored 18 to lead all scorers in the game.

Badgers Get Past
Patriots in Overtime
For the second time in a week, the Niagara Badgers went to overtime on Thursday, beating Goodman-Pembine 76-67.
The last time Niagara needed extra basketball to decide a game was last Friday against Gillett, a low-scoring game that finished 44-41 Tigers.
This was a different type of ballgame. Nicholas Krueger and Tommy Martin scored 24 points apiece to pace the victorious Badgers. Blake Holmes scored 13 and Aiden Colenso got nine.
Ryan Ehlert scored 28 in a losing effort for the Patriots. Lucas Barribeau scored 11 and Ryan Erickson got 10.
“This was a game played by two good teams. We were able to do the little things in overtime to win the game,” Niagara coach Terry Youren said.

Crivitz Cruises to
Win Over Gillett
Crivitz remained one of the lone undefeated boys basketball teams in the state of Wisconsin with a comfortable 68-34 victory over the Gillett Tigers on Thursday.
Sean Christiansen was the scoring leader for the Wolverines, pouring in 22 points. Tegan Werner scored 15 and Kaden Klaver got 13.
For Gillett, Jesse DeBauch’s 13 points were a team-high, followed by Aydin Franti’s seven.