Bulldogs Down Panthers in Post Season Opener

Kaine Fort has created a lot of problems for a lot of opposing defenses this season, and it was more of the same in Peshtigo’s 78-58 regional win over Oconto Falls on Tuesday.
Fort scored 27 points in the game and provided a lot of points from inside-out passes to teammates for open jumpers.
Mason Doberstein was the biggest beneficiary of Oconto Falls’ strategy to clog the lane to try and stop Fort, making six 3-pointers and finishing with 20 in the game.
“When Kaine Fort gets the ball under the hoop, the other teams have to make decisions,” Peshtigo coach Jason Boucher said. “They either double him, and Mason was hot tonight, and if it’s 1-on-1 down there, Kaine Fort’s got the advantage down there most nights.”
Oconto Falls coach Steve Rickert described it as a “pick your poison” situation.
“We thought we’d take our chances and try to get out as quickly as possible on the perimeter and put a hand up in the shooter’s face,” he said. “Credit to Peshtigo, they came out and they shot the ball really well and made us pay for it. We tried to take away the inside and it bit us on the outside.”
Kavin Kleikamp hit two 3-pointers as well and finished with 12 points.
The fourth-seeded Bulldogs advance to host No. 5 Winneconne on Friday night. The winner gets either No. 1 Xavier or No. 9 Clintonville the following night.
“I was proud of our guys’ effort tonight,” Boucher said. “In the first half, I thought we were a little sluggish on defense taking some possessions off, but for the most part tonight, we played pretty much solid basketball for probably 32 out of 36 minutes. When you win by 20 points, it’s a good feeling, especially to start the playoffs this way.”
Carter Hill scored 13 points for the Panthers. Caden Birr scored 12 and Braden Vandermoss got 11. All three of those players are seniors, along with Kody Vorpahl, who scored five points.
Freshman Jameson Beaman scored eight in the game.
“They never quit. They kept battling, even when it got pretty lopsided toward the end, so I’m very proud of the effort,” Rickert said. “Peshtigo is a good team. We gave it our best shot but just couldn’t get over the hump tonight.”

Menominee Holds Off
North Central 70-65
Menominee held off North Central on Tuesday behind great offensive performances from both Trevor and Tanner Theuerkauf.
Trevor Theuerkauf led the team in scoring with 23 points, while Tanner scored 20. Trevor, a junior, has been the Maroons’ most consistent scorer all season, but lately it’s been the freshman Tanner that’s making some noise.
“He’s been awesome a couple games in a row now. It’s nice to see him develop, and I think there’s a really high ceiling there for him to even get a lot better,” Menominee coach Sam Larson said. “I’m happy to see some guys stepping up, and I think we’re becoming a little bit more complete in terms of who can score for us. We’re not as one-dimensional as we have been in earlier times this season.”
Menominee led 15-7 after one quarter and 40-26 at halftime, but that was with Luke Gorzinski on the bench for much of the second quarter with foul trouble.
Gorzinski would score eight in the second half and Connor Florenski scored 11 in the fourth quarter alone to help propel a much-improved North Central offense.
When Menominee isn’t able to get stops, it also hampers their transition offense.
“In the second half, we kind of got into that vicious cycle of if we can’t get stops, then we can’t run in transition. If we don’t run in transition, we probably don’t score as well, and if we don’t score as well, we probably don’t get many stops,” Larson said. “There’s this vicious cycle that we got stuck in again for probably about five minutes in the third quarter. Then we got out of it, Tanner Theuerkauf got loose and got a layup. That was fantastic.”
Connor Coduti hit three 3-pointers and finished with 10 points. Eli Beal scored seven, and both Landan Bardowski and Darrent Butler scored five.
Menominee plays Ewen-Trout Creek in its season finale on Thursday night. Then the Maroons face Bark River-Harris at home in the district opener on Wednesday, March 8.

Tigers Ground Eagles
Regular Season Finale
Gillett sealed its position of third place in the M&O Conference with an 87-45 win over the Suring Eagles on Saturday.
The Tigers were not to be denied on offense, as they dropped 48 points in the first half and led by 25 at the halftime buzzer.
Austin VandeCorput scored 20 in the game to lead the charge. Ben Matczak and Aydin Franti scored 17 apiece and Tyler Frank finished with 10.
Jesse DeBauch scored nine and Ryan Pensis had eight.
For Suring, Ethan Lally’s 11 was a team-high. Donny Otradovec scored eight, followed by six each from Mason Ferrell and Trent Thomson.
Gillett was 15-9 this season, with an 11-5 M&O Conference record. Suring was 4-12 in M&O action.

Menominee Slaps
St. Ignace With Loss
Coming into Saturday’s game against Menominee, the St. Ignace boys had lost just three basketball games all season and sat fourth in the UP boys’ basketball poll.
Menominee waas 9-10, having just been beaten 69-45 by Kingsford on Monday. The great thing about basketball is that when you step onto the court, all those games don’t mean anything. You still have to put the ball in the bucket.
On Saturday morning, it was the Maroons that did that far better, as they beat the Saints 68-50.
It’s no secret that Jonathan Ingalls is the Saints’ top player, and he showed it in the first quarter, scoring 13 of his team’s 15 points in the period. Both teams were tied at 15 after one.
In the second quarter, Menominee scored 22 points to take a 10-point lead into halftime as Ingalls was held to three points.
“The first quarter, we didn’t understand the gameplan very well that No. 11 is their player. Ingalls is a really good player, if you’re just going to try and play him straight up, 1-on-1, you’re going to have problems,” Menominee coach Sam Larson said. “I think he had 13 or something, and after we made adjustments in the second quarter and kind of reiterated that we need to have some gap help on him, we did a lot better job.”
Trevor Theuerkauf led the way with six points in the quarter, with Landan Bardowski adding five.
The third quarter saw Menominee keep things going. After the Saints scored the first points of the quarter, the Maroons went on an 8-0 run to break the lead open to 18, with Connor Coduti and Tanner Theuerkauf nailing 3-pointers in the process.
The lead hit 22 at 57-35 on another three by Tanner Theuerkauf, which is where it sat going into the fourth quarter. The Saints outscored Menominee 13-11 in the fourth but it was all but over after the Maroons put up a 42-22 tally in the middle periods.
Ingalls was held scoreless for the final two quarters. Ethan McLean scored 13 for the Saints as well.
The game tipped at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday. After the Saints’ lengthy travel down to the southern Upper Peninsula, the Maroons looked the more ready-to-play of the two teams.
“I think that for a Saturday morning game, you’re happy with any kind of win,” Larson said. “A lot of these kids probably just got done playing Fortnite about eight hours ago, so for getting up in the morning and getting after it, I thought our intensity was really good.”
Trevor Theurkauf scored 19 points and Eli Beal got 10. Darrent Butler, Nate Schultz, and Tanner Theuerkauf each scored eight.
Larson scredited Tanner Theuerkauf with not just scoring, but with setting the tone early.
“I thought it started off with Tanner Theurkauf diving on the floor. I thought he was phenomenal in a lot of ways that didn’t show up in the stat sheet,” Larson said. “He ran lanes, which allowed us to get into our break. He defended really well and had good gap help and coverage, and then attacked the rim really well, too. I thought he really got us rolling today, but I thought we got team contributions from everybody.”

Oconto’s Big First
Half Leads To 75-41
Win Over Mishicot
Oconto nearly put up 50 points in the first half of Tuesday’s regional win over Mishicot.
The Blue Devils scored 75 in the game, with 49 of them coming before the halftime buzzer.
Carter Koch scored 17, Cooper Campshure got 16, Dominik Baxter finished with 14, Trenton Hartman scored 11, and Kadin Baxter got 10.
Oconto was a No. 5 seed, while Mishicot was seeded 12th. Next up for the Blue Devils is No. 4 Shiocton, to be played in Shiocton at 7 p.m. Friday.
Oconto beat Shiocton 70-61 all the way back on Nov. 29. Kadin Baxter, Dominik Baxter, and Koch all scored 20 or more points in that win.
The winner faces either No. 1 Saint Mary Catholic or No. 6 Manawa on Saturday night.
Patriots Upset Badgers
In Regional Opener
The upset of the night in Division 5 boys’ basketball belonged to 12 seed Goodman-Pembine on Tuesday as the Patriots upset No. 5 Niagara in the first round of regionals.
G-P is the lowest Division 5 seed to advance from round one, and just five double-digit D5 seeds made it out of the round.
Ryan Ehlert scored 17 points to lead the Patriots and Lucas Barribeau added 10. Kyle Braaton and Jacob Brunette scored six each.
For Niagara, Blake Holmes led the way with eight points and Aiden Colenso scored seven. Ed Swanson and Tommy Martin got five apiece.
The Patriots face No. 4 Oneida Nation on Friday night. The winner takes on either No. 1 Florence or No. 8 Gibraltar on Saturday night.
Niagara finishes the season with a 13-12 overall record. The Badgers lose seven players to graduation this year, as Swanson, Colenso, Nicholas Krueger, Ross Shampo, Connor Dunlap, Logan Weber, and Tristan Coolbaugh all depart.

Area Teams Bow
Out of Tournament
in Regionals
Area basketball teams took to the court Tuesday for the start of playoff action.
In Division 5, No. 10 Suring was beaten by No. 7 Elcho, 68-46. The Eagles will lose Ethan Lally, Ashtyn Edwards, Maxwell Yancy, and Mason Ferrell to graduation.
Saint Thomas Aquinas Academy, an 11 seed, lost 77-22 to No. 6 Wabeno/Laona.
STAA loses Ethan Braley to graduation but retains the rest of its core going into next season.
Lena lost 82-24 to No. 2 seed Three Lakes. Reed Hosking, Sidney Sylvester, Wyatt Dean, and Tyler Younger graduate this spring.
No. 1 Florence had a bye and will play No. 8 Gibraltar on Friday night. The Vikings beat Wausaukee 73-34 in the 8-9 matchup on Tuesday.
The Rangers will bid adieu to leading scorer Layne Rowley, as well as seniors Dustin Lang, Prestin Brunette, and Danny Suennen.

Cougars Claw
Past Wolves in
Regional Opener
Coleman won a nail-biter to hold off an upset bid from Algoma in the teams’ playoff opener Tuesday night.
Joe Olsen scored 17 and Evan Hockers got 16 to lead the way for Coleman in the Cougars’ 44-42 win Tuesday. Logan Kurth scored nine.
Algoma’s leader was Kaden Varden with 18 points.
The Cougars earned a date with M&O Conference champions Crivitz on Friday night. that one will tip at 7 p.m. at the Wolverines’ place.
The two times they met this season ended in Crivitz wins, 49-42 on Jan. 10 and 61-45 on Jan. 28.
The winner of Friday’s Crivitz-Coleman matchup takes on No. 3 Kewaunee or No. 6 Bonduel on Saturday night.

Blue Devilsl Hold
off Pioneers 78-70
The Sevastopol Pioneers were determined not to finish the Packerland Conference slate with an 0-16 record, and they gave Oconto a serious test Saturday in the regular season finale.
Four Pioneers scored 10 or more points in the game, led by Lucas Delsart’s 19 and Nick Peterson’s 17.
With the win, Oconto finished 9-7 in Packerland play.

Coleman
Falls to Lourdes
Academy 70-38
Coleman ended the regular season with a heavy 70-38 defeat to Lourdes Academy on Saturday.
Lourdes is a No. 7 seed in Division 5, but they didn’t play like on Saturday, as they handled the D4 seventh-seeded Cougars impressively.
JJ McKellips scored 18 points and Lucas Schettle finished with 14.
Coleman’s scoring leaders were Tyler Rennie and Logan Kurth with nine points apiece. Evan Hockers scored seven.

Werner Hits
1000th point in
Win Over Wausaukee
Tegan Werner dropped 28 points and hit a major scoring milestone in the process as his Crivitz Wolverines wrapped up a perfect M&O Conference season on Friday against Wausaukee.
Werner was 10-17 from the field and 6-7 from the free throw line, scoring his 1000th point in just his junior season. He is the second Wolverine to hit the milestone this season after senior Sean Christiansen did so earlier in the year.
Christiansen scored 12 points on Friday and Brady Tadisch scored 11. Kade Thoma (eight), Kaden Klaver (seven), and Jackson Flowers (six) were next.
The Rangers’ Kayden Suennen scored six points. Dustin Lang and Layne Rowley each added five.
Crivitz finished the regular season 22-1 overall and 16-0 in M&O Conference action. Wausaukee was 7-16 overall with a 5-11 conference record.

Tigers Dominate
Lakes to Advance
to Regional Semi’s
No. 3 Gillett made a statement in a 70-23 dismantling of White Lake in the playoffs Tuesday.
Jesse DeBauch scored 26 points and Austen VandeCorput scored 20. Tyler Frank scored eight and Brandon DeBauch finished with five.
On the other side, White Lake’s Aaron Wickershein scored 10, Blake Lambert scored eight, and Brady Kreciak scored five, but they were the only three players to score for the team.
Next up for the Tigers is No. 6 Wabeno/Laona on Friday, with that one hosted by Gillett at 7 p.m.
The Tigers were beaten 58-53 by the Rebels on Jan. 13, though that game was played on the road.
The winner faces either No. 2 Three Lakes or No. 7 Elcho on Saturday.