This story is sponsored by: High Street Salon, Spa & Travel
By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
STRATFORD – For the first time since the 2003-04 season the Auburndale boys basketball team is the sole champion of the Marawood Conference South Division. It did not come easy, however.
Auburndale fought back from a five-point halftime deficit to beat Stratford 52-48 before a packed house Friday night at Stratford High School.
The Apaches wrap up a perfect 14-0 season in the Marawood South (21-0 overall) and lays claim to their second Marawood South title in a row after tying with Marathon for the top spot last season. Stratford finishes 12-2 in the conference and falls to 16-4 overall, with both Marawood losses coming to the Apaches.
Auburndale trailed 36-31 after a basket by Stratford’s Travis Urlaub with 4:37 left in the third quarter before finally cracking the stingy Tigers’ defense.
Cale Weiler drilled a 3-pointer to spark a 9-0 run that included back-to-back possessions that ended in offensive rebounds and baskets by Austin Hawkins.
The talented junior center for the Apaches finished with 19 points on 9 of 9 shooting, and had 11 rebounds as his size and hard work underneath eventually wore down the Tigers.
“We talked about it at halftime that every loose ball, they were getting to, and we weren’t getting to them,” Hawkins said. “That, in truth, was it. We came out with the effort that was needed to win the game at the end.”
Auburndale never trailed again, leading by 2-5 points for much of the fourth quarter before pulling away late, making 6 of 10 from the free throw line in the final 44 seconds.
Stratford was just 1 of 13 from the field in the fourth quarter as it tried to comeback before making two late baskets in the final 10 seconds.
“In the third quarter, it was Hawkins,” Stratford coach Curt Schmidt said. “I think our big guys ran out of gas and couldn’t quite stay with him enough. Hawkins was getting a lot of easy baskets off of rebounds and loose balls and laying them in. You can only hold off certain people for so long.”
Derek Austin scored 14 of his team-high 19 points in the first half for Stratford. Troy Mengel scored 12 of his 16 in the opening two quarters as well as the duo helped the Tigers back from an early deficit.
Auburndale led 11-5 early and maintained a lead throughout much of the first half before the Tigers used an 11-0 run to take the lead. Austin and Nolan Bargender hit 3-pointers and Mengel had a three-point play during the spurt and the Tigers took a 30-25 lead into halftime.
The Apaches clamped down in the second half. Stratford was 7 of 11 from the field in the second quarter, but ended up going just 7 of 29 in the second half.
“I thought Stratford played unbelievable in the first half,” Auburndale coach Chad Weinfurter said. “I didn’t think we played that poor of defense and they put 30 up on us. At halftime, it was a challenge to us. ‘How do we respond to adversity? What’s your answer to this?’ I thought our kids played great defense in the second half. We kept battling.”
The victory in a playoff atmosphere Friday night was the beginning of what Hawkins hopes is a great run for the Apaches during the next month.
“Our little slogan this year has been ‘Don’t drink the Kool-Aid that everyone around town is feeding us,’” Hawkins said. “We just want to take it one game at a time. A lot of these guys on this team dealt with an early exit (in the playoffs) and it was really disappointing. We’re just trying to learn from last year’s lessons and get better every day.”
Auburndale will play Prentice in the first-place game and Stratford will take on Abbotsford in the second-place game of the Marawood Conference Crossovers on Saturday, Feb. 25 at Abbotsford. The second-place game begins at 1 p.m. with the first-place game to follow. Stratford also plays a home nonconference game next Thursday against Whitehall.
Apaches 52, Tigers 48
Auburndale 13 12 15 12 – 52
Stratford 11 19 8 10 – 48
AUBURNDALE (52): Cale Weiler 3-7 0-0 8, Blake Anderson 0-0 0-0 0, Isaac Castellano 1-6 0-0 3, Kyle Greunke 3-8 3-4 9, Markus Kleifgen 3-9 3-7 10, Austin Hawkins 9-9 1-2 19, Tyler Hartle 1-4 0-0 3. FG: 20-43. FT: 7-13. 3-pointers: 5-17 (Weiler 2-6, Castellano 1-4, Kleifgen 1-2, Hartle 1-2, Greunke 0-3). Rebounds: 28 (Hawkins 11). Record: 21-0, 14-0 Marawood South.
STRATFORD (48): Greg Belter 0-6 2-4 2, Nolan Bargender 2-6 0-0 5, Ben Kraus 0-1 0-0 0, Derek Austin 6-19 2-3 19, Eli Temanson 0-5 0-0 0, Travis Urlaub 3-8 0-0 6, Troy Mengel 7-9 2-2 16. FG: 18-54. FT: 6-9. 3-pointers: 6-16 (Austin 5-8, Bargender 1-1, Belter 0-2, Temanson 0-2, Urlaub 0-2). Rebounds: 27 (Bargender 7). Record: 16-4, 12-2 Marawood South.