This story is sponsored by: American Family Insurance – Randy LeMoine Agency, LLC
By Steve Pilz
For MarshfieldAreaSports.com
AUBURNDALE – The top-seeded Auburndale boys basketball team had little trouble dispatching the eighth-seeded Spencer Rockets 63-39 on Friday night in a WIAA Division 4 regional semifinal at Tim Anderson Gymnasium.
Auburndale (19-4) and will go on to play a familiar foe, Edgar (15-7), in a regional final Saturday night at 7 p.m. in Auburndale. The two teams split a pair of Marawood Conference South Division games this season.
Surely, the Rockets (12-12) were hoping for a better fate as they had battled Auburndale to a 65-54 loss back on Jan. 26.
That wasn’t the case here in early March where Auburndale perennially turns its game up a notch. Friday was no different as they ran out to a 13-point halftime lead and never looked back.
The Apaches last game was eight days ago – a long time in a usually jam-packed basketball season – and it was kind of a clunker as they lost to Stratford 62-42.
“We’ve been a little inconsistent at times this season,” Auburndale coach Chad Weinfurter said. “So I was a little worried about how we’d come out tonight. I thought the guys did a nice job in the first half. I thought Spencer really played hard but we were able to put them away.”
Not only did Auburndale scorch the nets to the tune of 21-for-39 (54 percent) from the field, the Apaches bottled up the Rockets’ Jack Bezlyk, who came into the contest averaging over 16 points per game and had just surpassed the 1,000-point mark for his career on Tuesday. Bezlyk could muster just seven points on 3-for-13 shooting, a fact not lost on Weinfurter.
“Colten Yeske had a great game and he played some really good ‘D’ on Bezlyk,” Weinfurter said.
The second half was more of the same with the Apaches making 11 of 17 shots before reserves took over for both teams. Auburndale led by 30 at one point.
“Hopefully we’ll show up on the defensive end and hit the boards because we’re talented enough offensively,” Weinfurter said. “That’ll take care of itself. We’ve got to bring it every night defensively especially against Edgar tomorrow, who is going to be physical and knocking people around.”
The Apaches split games with Edgar on the season losing 50-42 at Edgar on Dec. 21 and beating the Wildcats 55-36 in Auburndale on Feb. 16. Fourth-seeded Edgar beat Neillsville 49-44 on Friday night.
Cale Jacoby led the Apaches in scoring with 16 points. Cooper Weinfurter and Yeske added 15 and 14 respectively. Sophomore Austin Bacon led the Rockets with 10.
Apaches 63, Rockets 39
Spencer 16 23 – 39
Auburndale 29 34 – 63
SPENCER (39): Lukas Ellefson 6, Austin Bacon 10, Jack Bezlyk 7, Collin Nieman 5, Brandon Much 7, Nate Karau 4. FG: 16-43. FT: 3-9. 3-pointers: 4-10 (Bacon 2, Ellefson 2). Turnovers: 7. Record: 12-12.
AUBURNDALE (63): Cooper Wienfurter 15, Cale Jacoby 16, Cason Schmutzer 6, Fletcher Raab 3, Colten Yeske 14, Cameron Ertl 3, Colton Wright 6. FG: 21-39. FT: 16-25. 3-pointers: 5-13 (Wright 2, Weinfurter 2, Raab 1). Turnovers: 6. Record: 19-4.