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By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
STRATFORD – A swarming defense and efficient offense led to a big win for the Stratford boys basketball team in its opener against Colby on Tuesday night.
The Tigers shot 54 percent from the field and forced 32 turnovers as they cruised past Colby 89-20 in a nonconference game at Stratford High School.
Stratford raced out to a 22-1 lead during the first 6½ minutes, forcing turnovers on 11 straight Colby possessions.
Paul Huther scored the first six points for the Tigers, Brenden Fecker converted a three-point play and Trent Heckel drilled a 3-pointer to make it 16-1 just 4 minutes into the game.
“The defense, I was very, very pleased with,” Stratford coach Curt Schmidt said. “We played man-to-man the whole game. Our help, our movement, it was good. I was very excited about that.”
Colby was never able to get its offense going as it turned the ball over 21 times in the first half, while attempting just 15 shots and only making three.
Baskets by Benjamin Barten and Teddy Redman made it 48-8 and Stratford took a 55-15 lead into halftime.
To make matters worse for the Hornets, they went the first 10:11 of the second half without a point, as Stratford scored 31 in a row to push it to 86-15 after a 3-pointer from Redman at the 8:02 mark.
Thirteen different Tigers scored in the victory, five in double digits. Redman had 13 points, Barten and Okley Wrensch each added 11, and Vaughn Breit and Huther had 10 apiece for Stratford. Breit added eight rebounds.
After making a run to the sectional finals last season, the Stratford players and coaches have high expectations for 2017-18, and Tuesday’s performances shows they are ready for the challenge.
“The kids are excited and we’re excited,” Schmidt said. “We just want to enjoy the journey and don’t want to get stuck on the what-ifs and all that, we want to take it one game at a time. We want to enjoy every moment because the kids have worked hard just to start the season.”
Stratford hosts Wisconsin Rapids Assumption in its Marawood Conference South Division opener Nov. 28.
Tigers 89, Hornets 20
Colby 15 5 – 20
Stratford 55 34 – 89
COLBY (20): Alex Schmitt 0-7 2-2 2, Tony Ortega 1-3 0-0 3, Hunter Fecker 0-1 1-3 1, Armando Campa 0-1 0-0 0, Nate Meyer 0-7 3-7 3, Sawyer Stuttgen 0-0 0-0 0, Lucas Bruesewitz 0-2 0-2 0, Alex Garcia 0-1 0-0 0, Matthew Stewart 2-4 2-2 6, Daniel Meza 0-3 2-4 2, Sam Krause 1-1 0-0 3, Connor Jeske 0-0 0-0 0. FG: 4-30. FT: 10-20. 3-pointers: 2-15 (Krause 1-1, Ortega 1-2, Fecker 0-1, Garcia 0-1, Meyer 0-2, Bruesewitz 0-2, Meza 0-3, Schmitt 0-3). Rebounds: 23 (Stewart 4, Meza 4). Turnovers: 32. Fouls: 17. Fouled out: none. Record: 0-1.
STRATFORD (89): Branden Ackley 2-6 0-0 5, Andrew Bargender 1-2 0-0 2, Benjamin Barten 4-4 3-3 11, Vaughn Breit 5-7 0-1 10, Eli Drexler 2-3 1-2 6, Brenden Fecker 1-5 2-3 4, Hunter Hannan 1-3 0-0 2, Trent Heckel 1-4 0-0 3, Lance Heidmann 2-5 0-0 6, Paul Huther 5-8 0-3 10, Teddy Redman 5-6 2-4 13, Chandler Schmidt 2-4 0-0 6, Okley Wrensch 3-6 4-4 11. FG: 34-63. FT: 12-20. 3-pointers: 9-24 (Heidmann 2-4, Schmidt 2-4, Redman 1-1, Drexler 1-1, Heckel 1-3, Wrensch 1-3, Ackley 1-4, Breit 0-1, Fecker 0-3). Rebounds: 37 (Breit 8). Turnovers: 10. Fouls: 17. Fouled out: none. Record: 1-0.