This story is sponsored by: The Marshfield Tiger Booster Club
By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
MARSHFIED – Following a lackluster first half, the Marshfield girls basketball team scored eight of the first 11 points in the second half to open up a double-digit lead and eventually pulled away to beat Wisconsin Rapids 56-40 in a Wisconsin Valley Conference game Friday night at The Boson Company Fieldhouse at Marshfield High School.
Ema Fehrenbach made all five of her field goal attempts in the second half and finished with 22 points and seven rebounds for Marshfield, which remains perfect at 7-0 overall and 3-0 in the WVC. Rapids is now 1-7 and 1-3 in the conference.
Four different Tigers scored as they built a 9-0 lead to open the game, but Marshfield went ice cold after that and Rapids mounted a comeback.
The Tigers missed 13 of their next 15 shot attempts and Rapids used a 10-0 run, including seven points in a 50-second span, to take a 16-13 lead with 4:03 to go in the first half.
Marshfield countered with a 10-0 run of its own as Fehrenbach had five points and McKayla Scheuer had four to regain the lead. A 3-pointer by Kendra Lysne at the buzzer brought the Raiders to within a 23-19 score at halftime.
Marshfield never trailed again, but coach Heidi Michaelis definitely wasn’t happy with the way the Tigers played.
“When you have a kid like Ema, who can score bunches of points on the inside, you have to get her touches whether it’s against a zone or a man,” Michaelis said. “I thought we settled a lot in the first half. We did not play hard enough in the first half to do anything good, because of that, we looked lethargic on both ends of the floor.
“Sometimes they are ready to go and sometimes they’re not. It was a whole team effort of not being ready. We weren’t ready to go and we won by 16. Some people would take that, but I know we’re better than that.”
Fehrenbach scored eight points over the first 8 minutes of the second half and Meg Bryan made a 3-pointer to push Marshfield’s lead to 40-28 with 10 minutes to go and Rapids got n closer than 11 the rest of the way.
The Tigers 43 percent (22 of 51) and made only 2 of 12 3-point attempts, but held Rapids to 32 percent shooting (15 of 46) and forced 15 turnovers.
Marshfield, ranked ninth in this week’s Wissports.net Division 1 state coaches poll, will host No. 4-ranked Bay Port in a nonconference matchup Tuesday. Michaelis said the Tigers have to bring a different intensity in order to have a chance in that game.
“I expect more of them and deep down, they know they have to play better than they did tonight,” Michaelis said. “Between now and Tuesday, we are going to have to be better. We have to be ready to go. If we don’t play with an edge, we are very, very average.”
Tigers 56, Raiders 40
Wisconsin Rapids 19 21 – 40
Marshfield 23 33 – 56
WISCONSIN RAPIDS (40): Paige Kubisiak 0-3 0-0 0, Kendra Lysne 6-14 3-5 19, Katy Schooley 0-0 0-0 0, Breally Kautzer 1-4 1-2 3, Riley Kubisiak 0-0 0-0 0, Chani Pulchinski 3-14 0-0 6, Morgan Saeger 1-2 1-4 3, Kaylee Wirtz 3-4 0-0 6, Maddie Paitel 1-5 0-0 3. FG: 15-46. FT: 5-11. 3-pointers: 5-13 (Lysne 4-7, Paitel 1-2, P. Kubisiak 0-1, Pulchinski 0-3). Rebounds: 30 (Lysne 10). Turnovers: 15. Fouls: 16. Fouled out: none. Record: 1-7, 1-3 Wisconsin Valley Conference.
MARSHFIELD (56): McKayla Scheuer 5-17 3-4 14, Danielle Bender 0-0 0-0 0, Jenny Scheppler 0-1 0-0 0, Ana Jensen 0-0 3-6 3, Sara Dasler 0-0 0-0 0, Meg Bryan 1-6 0-0 3, Maddie Nikolai 4-9 0-0 8, Ema Fehrenbach 9-11 4-7 22, Hannah Meverden 3-7 0-0 6. FG: 22-51. FT: 10-17. 3-pointers: 2-12 (Bryan 1-5, Scheuer 1-7). Rebounds: 35 (Meverden 9). Turnovers: 13. Fouls: 12. Fouled out: none. Record: 7-0, 3-0 Wisconsin Valley Conference.