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By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
EDGAR – The Stratford boys basketball team picked a good time to play its best all-around game of the season.
The Tigers, behind a dominating inside game by Troy Mengel, and hot outside shooting cruised past Edgar 62-45 in a WIAA Division 4 regional quarterfinal Tuesday night at Edgar High School.
Mengel hit 9 of 15 shots and scored a game-high 21 points for the Tigers (12-10), who shot 5 of 7 from 3-point range to beat Edgar (11-12) for the first time in three tries this season.
The difference, Stratford coach Curt Schmidt said, was in the balance.
“Tonight, we hit shots. Bottom line, you have to hit shots to get a defense out,” Schmidt said. “My kids really played good defense. They played really hard.
“We had good balance. I told the kids before the game, and all week actually, that if you’re going to win, if you’re going to do anything in the tournament, you’ve got to have balance. We made our free throws for the most part. I would say that this was one of our best, well-rounded games that we’ve had all year.”
Stratford went to Mengel early and often as the 6-foot-2 junior post player scored seven points in the first quarter. Greg Belter and Derek Austin hit 3-pointers as well as the Tigers built a 12-2 lead and was ahead 18-11 after one quarter.
Both teams hit a cold streak in the second quarter and neither team scored for nearly 5 minutes before Stratford closed out the quarter with seven straight points – five by Mengel and a buzzer beater by Austin Shelley – to take a 26-16 lead at the break.
“The first quarter definitely helped,” Shelley said. “We picked it up defensively – we kind of lacked in that the first couple of games (against Edgar). Everybody stepped up and we all played a really good game, hit some outside shots and that opened things up for us. We got off to a good start and that definitely helped.”
Stratford maintained its double-digit lead for the remainder of the game. Shelley hit back-to-back 3-pointers in the third quarter and Derek Austin had 11 of his 14 points in the second half as the Tigers won going away.
Stratford moves on to a regional semifinal at Marathon, which also beat the Tigers twice during the regular season. Marathon won by 40 points at home and 25 points at Stratford. The Tigers know they will have to play a perfect game to upset the regional’s No. 1 seed, which is 21-1 on the season.
“They’re definitely a good team,” Shelley said of Marathon. “We have to take care of the ball, play our hearts out and compete. That’s all we ask and that’s what we’re going to do this Friday.”
Tigers 62, Wildcats 45
Stratford 18 8 16 18 – 62
Edgar 11 5 12 17 – 45
STRATFORD (62): Nolan Bargender 1-4 1-2 3, Ben Kraus 0-0 0-0 0, John Rutherford 0-2 2-2 2, Derek Austin 5-18 3-5 14, Austin Shelley 3-6 3-4 11, Greg Belter 2-2 2-4 7, Josh Reif 1-1 1-2 4, Zach Hotchkiss 0-0 0-0 0, Travis Urlaub 0-0 0-0 0, Troy Mengel 9-15 3-4 21. FG: 17-41. FT: 5-7. 3-pointers: 5-7 (Shelley 2-2, Austin 1-2, Belter 1-1, Hotchkiss 1-1, Bargender 0-1). Rebounds: 35 (Mengel 10). Turnovers: 7. Total fouls: 18. Fouled out: none. Record: 12-10.
EDGAR (45): Caden Untiedt 4-8 3-4 11, Reed Lehman 1-3 0-3 2, Kyle Wolf 1-4 0-1 2, Dalton Lehman 4-12 2-4 9, Dakota Heidmann 7-15 0-2 17, Derek Boehm 0-0 1-2 1, Marshall Stieber 1-2 1-2 3, Will Hannemann 0-0 0-0 0. FG: 17-44. FT: 7-18. 3-pointers: 4-12 (Heidmann 3-8, D. Lehman 1-3, Untiedt 0-1). Rebounds: 23 (Heidmann 7). Turnovers: 7. Total fouls: 18. Fouled out: R. Lehman. Record: 11-12.
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