This story is sponsored by: The University of Wisconsin-Marshfield/Wood County
By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
AUBURNDALE – After a sluggish opening quarter to the season, the Auburndale boys basketball team looked in mid-season form.
The Apaches outscored Wild Rose by 31 points over the final three quarters, rolling to a 69-37 victory in the season opener for both teams on Tuesday night at Auburndale High School.
Auburndale turned the ball over five times and were just 3 of 11 shooting in the first quarter, and were down 11-10 after 8 minutes.
From there, it was all Apaches.
Auburndale made 22 of 39 shots, including 7 of 11 from 3-point range, over the final three quarters.
“We were kind of hesitant at first – we were kind of like that in our scrimmage the other day too – when we finally got the ball moving it got our legs going a little bit,” Auburndale coach Chad Weinfurter said. “I thought our bench play was really good. We’re a little deeper than we were last year, a little more versatile. It helps when shots go in.”
Zach Staats scored 12 of his game-high 17 points in the first half. His three offensive rebounds led to two three-point plays and eight points as the Apaches started to pull away.
Matt Nikolay drilled all three of his 3-point attempts and finished with 16 points, and Blake Anderson added 15 points for Auburndale.
“It was the first-game jitters and we didn’t get any motion in our offense,” Auburndale senior point guard Isaac Castellano said of the first quarter. “We played good defense, I think they only scored 11, but after that we got the rhythm going, got the jitters out of the way and started hitting our shots.”
Staats second three-point play started a 12-0 run to end the first half and Auburndale used an 8-0 run in the third quarter to push its lead to 46-20 with 3:30 remaining.
Wild Rose got no closer than 21 the rest of the way.
“The five guys that we have coming back (from last year’s team that was the WIAA state Division 3 runner-up) all played big roles last year,” Weinfurter said. “A lot of different roles, but that is where summer really helps. These guys played in three really competitive tournaments, along with their league games, and I thought that was huge. And they get along so well, there is really good chemistry.”
Auburndale opens Marawood Conference South Division action Monday at Northland Lutheran.
Apaches 69, Wildcats 37
Wild Rose 11 5 12 9 – 37
Auburndale 10 23 17 19 – 69
WILD ROSE (37): Tanner Judziak 5-9 1-1 13, Adrian Ortega 0-1 0-0 0, Josh Erickson 1-8 0-0 2, Brett Kasuboski 0-3 0-0 0, Zack Raduechl 0-0 0-0 0, Luke Thompson 2-2 2-3 8, Aaron VandeCastle 4-10 0-3 8, Jarrett Tietz 3-7 0-0 6, Brody Calnin 0-0 0-0 0. FG: 15-40. FT: 3-7. 3-pointers: 4-12 (Thompson 2-2, Hudziak 2-3 , Ortega 0-1, VandeCastle 0-1, Erickson 0-2, Kasuboski 0-3). Rebounds: 18 (Tietz 6, VandeCastle 6). Turnovers: 15. Fouls: 11. Fouled out: none. Record: 0-1.
AUBURNDALE (69): Jake Lewis 2-2 0-0 5, Tom Sabel 0-2 0-0 0, Matt Nikolay 5-8 3-4 16, Blake Anderson 5-10 3-4 15, Isaac Castellano 1-3 0-0 2, Bryan Gehrke 0-0 0-0 0, Zach Staats 7-12 3-4 17, Cooper Krings 1-2 0-0 3, Tyler Weber 0-0 0-0 0, Alex Marth 2-2 0-0 4, Matt Lang 1-2 0-0 2, Josh VanShoick 1-3 3-4 5. FG: 25-46. FT: 12-16. 3-pointers: 7-15 (Nikolay 3-3, Anderson 2-5, Krings 1-1, Lewis 1-1, Staats 0-1, Castellano 0-2, Sabel 0-2). Rebounds: 31 (Staats 9). Turnovers: 13. Fouls: 12. Fouled out: none. Record: 1-0.