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By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
MOSINEE – The Marshfield boys basketball team took every punch Mosinee had to throw at them and came out on the other side to live for at least one more day.
The Tigers led the entire second half, holding off run after run from Mosinee, and pulled away late to win 81-71 in a WIAA Division 2 regional semifinal Friday night at Mosinee High School.
Thanks to Medford’s upset of No. 1 seed Rhinelander, 63-61 in overtime, the fifth-seed Marshfield (12-11) will host No. 9 seed Medford (15-9) in a D-2 regional final Saturday night at 7 p.m. at the Marshfield High School Fieldhouse.
“Sometimes when you look at your team, you can see it in their eyes,” Marshfield coach Scott Scheuer said. “There wasn’t a lot of talk before we came out. I want them to be relaxed and have fun. They were locked in tonight. That’s hard to do without a lot of seniors.”
Mosinee began the game on a 9-3 run before Marshfield chipped away. Brant Bohman hit his second 3-poitner in the opening minutes to give the Tigers a 14-12 lead five minutes in.
The lead changed hands or was tied on six times before Marshfield used a 15-4 run to take the lead for good.
Bohman and Tommy Olson made 3-pointers, Seth Anderson was 4-for-4 at the free throw line, and Reed Miller made a hoop to help Marshfield build a 34-26 lead.
The Tigers led 36-31 at halftime and scored the first four points of the second half before Mosinee made its first push to cut it to 44-43.
Olson and Anderson hit back-to-back 3s to thwart the comeback and Issac Meverden scored to make it 52-43.
Mosinee quickly cut it to three before Marshfield pushed ahead again. A three-point play by Meverden, who scored 16 points, all in the final 20 minutes of the game, gave the Tigers a 62-51 lead with 6 minutes to go.
Mosinee again pushed back, coming to within four at 68-64 on a 3-pointer from Oliver Barnes. Meverden was called for a foul after the basket. Barnes responded and received a technical foul, which was also his fifth foul of the game and he was disqualified. Mosinee made one of two free throws to cut it to four, but Anderson nailed the two technical free throws and Marshfield led by at least four the rest of the way.
Meverden made 8 of 9 free throws, Anthony Posteluk was a perfect 6-for-6 at the line, and Anderson made 8 of 10 as the Tigers were a robust 29 of 35 from the free throw stripe.
“I thought our best player tonight was Ike (Meverden),” Scheuer said. “He knocked free throws down, had a couple of backdoor cuts, rebounded, guarded. Obviously, it takes everybody to win.”
Anderson finished with a game-high 28 points and heads into Saturday’s regional final with 520 points this season and on the verge of a school record. Marshfield’s top mark for points in a season is 540, held by Bill Rhyner, who set the mark in the 1967-68 season.
Tigers 81, Indians 71
Marshfield 36 45 – 81
Mosinee 31 40 – 71
MARSHFIELD (81): Issac Meverden 4-6 8-9 16, Brant Bohman 3-6 2-2 11 11, Tommy Olson 3-4 0-0 8, Reed Miller 3-10 5-8 12, Seth Anderson 9-14 8-10 28, Sam Hinson 0-0 0-0 0, Preston Wagner 0-0 0-0 0, Anthony Posteluk 0-3 6-6 6, John Reigel 0-0 0-0 0, Cody Korth 0-0 0-0 0, Grant Urban 0-0 0-0 0, Joey Goettl 0-0 0-0 0. FG: 22-43. FT: 29-35. 3-pointers: 8-20 (Bohman 3-6, Anderson 2-3, Olson 2-3, Miller 1-4, Meverden 0-1, Posteluk 0-3). Rebounds: 31 (Miller 14). Turnovers: 17. Fouls: 22. Fouled out: Anderson. Record: 12-11.
MOSINEE (71): Ryan Polka 0-0 0-0 0, Eric Makela 0-1 0-0 0, Cyle Kowalski 0-0 0-0 0, Austin Freiboth 1-8 0-1 3, Justin Stubbe 1-4 0-0 2, Seth Kuhn 6-6 2-3 16, Casey Kowalski 2-7 1-2 7, Oliver Barnes 5-18 5-7 17, Luke Spink 6-8 8-12 22, Adam Moucha 2-3 0-0 4. FG: 23-55. FT: 16-25. 3-pointers: 9-30 (Kuhn 2-2, Spink 2-2, Kowalski 2-7, Barnes 2-8, Freiboth 1-8, Makela 0-1, Stubbe 0-2). Rebounds: 28 (Barnes 9). Fouls: 26. Technical foul: Barnes. Fouled out: Barnes, Stubbe, Kowalski. Record: 15-8.