This story is sponsored by: Valley Communities Credit Union
By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
Click here for the full interview with Columbus coach Joe Konieczny
GREENWOOD – No one can accuse the Marshfield Columbus Catholic boys basketball team of not earning its share of the Cloverbelt Conference East Division championship.
Tyler Derfus drilled a 3-pointer from the corner as time expired to give the Dons their second overtime win in the last three games, a 54-51 win over Greenwood on Wednesday at Greenwood High School.
With the win, Columbus Catholic (17-4, 16-2 Cloverbelt East) ties Colby for first place and grabs a share of the Cloverbelt East title for the second straight season. It is the third conference championship in four years for the Dons, who won the Marawood South in 2008.
“We were hoping to get it to 10 or 12 seconds and get it to Mike (Iwanski) and we call it X, where four guys cut to spots and he gets somebody an open look,” Columbus coach Joe Konieczny said. “We just didn’t want them to get the ball back.”
Derfus, who had a team-high 14 points for the Dons, capped off a wild finish with his long-range bomb as the buzzer sounded.
Jeffrey Rachu made a basket with 1:05 left for Greenwood to tie the game at 51-51.
Columbus called a pair of timeouts, one with 45.4 seconds left and another with 20.2 seconds to go, to set up a play. However, it didn’t work out the way Konieczny wanted. Brandon Herr stole the ball for Greenwood with 10 seconds left only to see Travis Pischel steal it back at the Indians’ free-throw line as time was ticking down.
“I thought we threw a poor skip pass, to Herr’s credit, he stole it,” Konieczny said. “Give Travis Pischel credit. He didn’t quit and went right down and got us a big steal.”
Jared Boyle dribbled up court and as he approached the lane he hit Derfus with a pass in the left corner. Derfus’ shot went in as the buzzer sounded.
“We turned it over, but Travis got down and he really made the difference and stole the ball,” Derfus said. “Jared just threw it out on the corner. I hadn’t been knocking them down all game, but I thought I had to get one.
“Honestly, I didn’t think it was good. Some of the guys told me it was good as soon as they saw it. I guess it went in.”
Columbus jumped out to a 14-4 lead in the first 4 minutes before Greenwood closed out the first quarter with an 8-0 run, and scored the first basket of the second quarter, to tie the game at 14-14. The game was tight the rest of the way.
The Dons led by as much as seven and had four-point leads three different occasions, only to see Greenwood storm back each time.
The Indians led briefly at 30-29 when Joshua Harlander capped off a 5-0 run during the third quarter.
Harlander’s three-point play with 4:58 left in the fourth quarter gave Greenwood its second lead at 42-40.
Mike Iwanski, who had eight points and 10 rebounds for the Dons, drilled a jumper from the free-throw lie to tie the game 20 seconds later and the lead see-sawed back-and-forth over the final 3 minutes.
Twice Harlander scored to give the Indians the lead, but Columbus responded each time – on a rebound and basket by Iwanski and two free throws by Derfus.
Neither team scored in the final 2 minutes as Greenwood missed three shots, including a shot by Harlander as time expired, sending the game to overtime.
Brandon Nikolai scored 50 seconds into overtime to put the Dons on top, a lead they would hold on to until Rachu’s shot with 1:05 tied it.
“It wasn’t a very good game for us – we didn’t play our best,” Derfus said. “But we turned it around in the end and got the win.”
Columbus will play at Altoona in the second-place game of the Cloverbelt Conference Crossover on Saturday at 6 p.m. The Dons are the second seed based on Colby’s sweep of the two regular-season games.
Columbus opens the WIAA Division 5 playoffs with a regional quarterfinal at home against winless Granton on Tuesday.
“I think, going in, we knew that the conference was fairly balanced and that there were five or six teams that could knock anybody off on any night,” Konieczny said. “We fortunate to survive all of the games, except the Colby games, and that’s what did it for us.
“I think we’re probably in the toughest region that we’ve been in since I’ve been here. Prentice and Rib Lake are very good. I could see any one of the three of us coming out of the thing. Whoever happens to shoot the ball on a certain night will probably be the team that advances. Hopefully, it’s us.”
Dons 54, Indians 51 (OT)
Columbus 14 13 11 10 6 – 54
Greenwood 12 13 10 13 3 – 51
COLUMBUS (54): Mike Iwanski 4-6 1-2 9, Travis Pischel 3-14 2-2 9, Brandon Nikolai 2-5 0-2 5, Tyler Derfus 4-11 4-4 14, Jared Boyle 4-10 0-0 10, Paul Selz 2-5 0-0 5, Jared Fleischmann 0-0 0-0 0, David Cleveland 1-1 0-0 2, Zach Strobel 0-0 0-0 0, Jacob Puent 0-1 0-0 0. FG: 20-53. FT: 7-10. 3-pointers: 7-29 (Derfus 2-8, Boyle 2-7, Pischel 1-8, Nikolai 1-3, Selz 1-2, Iwanski 0-1). Rebounds: 26 (Iwanski 10). Turnovers: 19. Total fouls: 15. Fouled out: Selz. Record: Columbus Catholic 17-4, 16-2 Cloverbelt East.
GREENWOOD (51): Brandon Herr 5-20 0-1 11, Jeffrey Rachu 5-13 2-2 13, Westin Wuethrich 0-2 1-2 1, Hayden Hinker 4-5 1-2 9, Joshua Harlander 6-15 3-3 15, Josh Cook 1-1 0-0 2. FG: 21-56. FT: 7-10. 3-pointers: 2-17 (Herr 1-9, Rachu 1-1, Harlander 0-7). Rebounds: 30 (Hinker 13). Turnovers: 18. Total fouls: 12. Fouled out: none. Record: Greenwood 13-8, 11-7 Cloverbelt East.