This story is sponsored by: The Marshfield Tiger Booster Club
By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
MARSHFIELD – The showdown is set for the Marshfield girls basketball team.
The Tigers took care of Merrill 51-40 on Friday night at The Boson Company Fieldhouse at Marshfield High School, setting up a battle of undefeated Wisconsin Valley Conference teams on Tuesday.
Marshfield (10-2 overall, 4-0 WVC) will play at D.C. Everest (11-0, 4-0 WVC) in the first go-around between the top two teams in the conference. Everest is ranked No. 2 in WisSports.net Division 1 state coaches poll. The rematch will be Feb. 13 in Marshfield.
“We’re building to our big game on Tuesday and I know the kids are excited about that,” Marshfield coach Heidi Michaelis said. “I think they did what they needed to do tonight. There’s things I wanted them to do better and harder, but overall, we’ll walk away from this one and get ready for the next one.”
Marshfield started out the game with a 14-2 run and that proved to be more than enough to earn the win over Merrill (2-7, 1-3 WVC).
Ellie Kummer and Caitlin Michaelis each hit 3-pointers over the first 5 minutes for the Tigers.
Martha Kupfer had a three-point play and Makayla Scheuer drilled the first of her four 3-pointers in a 10-0 run to start the second quarter and push the Tigers’ lead to 26-7.
Merrill closed the half with a 9-0 run – seven of the points coming from Maddix Bonnell – to cut Marshfield’s lead to 10.
The Bluejays managed to whittle the deficit to seven with 3:38 to go, but a Michaelis’ 3-pointer and a basket by Natalie Zuelke stopped their momentum and the Tigers held on.
Zuelke scored six points and Kupfer added five off the bench for Marshfield.
“Tonight was a game where a lot of different people got to play good minutes,” Heidi Michaelis said. “I think that’s important for us. Going forward, we need to have confidence in everyone that comes in and tonight, I thought a lot of people came in and did a lot of good things for us.”
Scheuer finished with 14 points and Ellie Kummer added 10 for the Tigers. Scheuer scored eight of Marshfield’s 11 points in the third quarter to keep the Tigers rolling despite nine second-half turnovers.
“We don’t want her to think out there, just catch and shoot,” Heidi Michaelis said. “We just want her to do what comes naturally and I think that’s when she plays her best. Right now, offensively, we are struggling. Anytime you can have a guard come down and knock down 3s off the first pass, that’s going to be huge for us.”
Marshfield’s game at D.C. Everest on Tuesday will be broadcast on WDLB-AM 1450 and wdlbwosq.com.
Tigers 51, Bluejays 40
Merrill 7 9 8 16 – 40
Marshfield 16 10 11 14 – 51
MERRILL (40): Maddix Bonnell 7-13 0-1 16, Emily Page 3-7 2-3 9, Morgan Marnholtz 2-7 2-2 7, Hannah Marrier 0-1 1-2 1, Starr Krenzke 2-5 0-0 4, Mariah Turenne 1-7 1-1 3, Morgan Pettit 0-2 0-0 0, Rylee Folz 0-0 0-0 0, Chelsey LaMonica 0-1 0-0 0. FG: 15-43. FT: 6-9. 3-pointers: 4-12 (Bonnell 2-3, Page 1-4, Marnholtz 1-1, Krenzke 0-1, Turenne 0-3). Rebounds: 24 (Krenzke 8). Turnovers: 16. Fouls: 11. Fouled out: none. Record: 2-7, 1-3 Wisconsin Valley Conference
MARSHFIELD (51): Makayla Scheuer 5-7 0-0 14, Caitlin Michaelis 2-9 0-0 6, Natalie Zuelke 3-5 0-0 6, Maddie Nikolai 1-2 0-0 2, Martha Kupfer 1-1 3-3 5, Ellie Kummer 3-12 2-2 10, Ema Fehrenbach 2-3 0-1 4, Hannah Meverden 2-2 0-0 4. FG: 19-41. FT: 5-6. 3-pointers: 8-17 (Scheuer 4-5, Michaelis 2-6, Kummer 2-6). Rebounds: 25 (Fehrenbach 6). Turnovers: 19. Fouls: 9. Fouled out: none. Record: 10-2, 4-0 Wisconsin Valley Conference.