Sports

Coming off a victory over White Lake two nights before, the Gillett boys basketball team was riding high.

The Tigers had a quick start at Oneida Nation, but the shorthanded Thunderhawks used their uptempo style to run past Gillett 80-43 in a Marinette & Oconto Conference matchup Thursday.

Despite the lopsided loss, Gillett coach Kelly Willson liked how his guys played.

“We stood together as a team,” Willson said. “Our offense was really in rhythm most of the time other than some breakdowns. I bet we missed, 12, 13, 14 easy buckets. And, of course, we made some awful passes once in a while that got us in trouble. But we were mostly in sync, I thought. Our defense was really good in the first half.

“My hat goes off to my guys. The score does not indicate what we did tonight as a program.”

BOYS BASKETBALL

Fox Valley Lutheran 52

Oconto Falls 24

Mason Sefcik scored a team-high seven points as Oconto Falls lost on the road Thursday.

Kade Brabant tallied four points, while Kamdan Bloom and Aaron Kurth each posted three for Oconto Falls (1-14, 0-11 North Eastern Conference).

Lena 61

Niagara 53

Senior Hunter Borchert topped 1,000 career points by tallying 17 in Lena’s road victory Thursday.

Dalton Anderson and Connor Heise tied for a team-high 18 points each for Lena (13-3, 10-2 Marinette & Oconto Conference).

Heise added six assists and six rebounds, team highs in both categories.

Suring 63

Wausaukee 27

Three players each tallied 15 points as Suring cruised to victory at home on Thursday.

John Christensen, Chris Geniesse and Ryan Mahoney were the high scorers for Suring (13-3, 10-2 Marinette & Oconto Conference).

BOYS BASKETBALL

Waupaca 49

Oconto Falls 41

Dakota Carriveau tallied 11 points and eight rebounds as Oconto Falls lost on the road Monday.

Kamdan Bloom posted eight points and Mason Sefcik added seven for Oconto Falls (1-13, 0-10 North Eastern Conference).

The Panthers were outscored 21-19 in the final 18 minutes.

Denmark 71

Oconto Falls 43

Sam Virtues and Mason Sefcik each scored six points to lead Oconto Falls in Friday’s road loss.

Twelve players found the basket for the Panthers (1-12, 0-9 North Eastern Conference).

Freedon grabbed a 16-point lead in the first half before outscoring Oconto Falls by 12 in the second half.

Suring 51

Niagara 44

Chris Geniesse posted 18 points and Ryan Mahoney tallied 17 in Suring’s road victory Friday.

The Eagles (10-3, 8-2 Marinette & Oconto Conference) forced 17 turnovers in the first half with a pressure defense.

Both Gillett and Wausaukee entered Monday night’s showdown winless in the Marinette & Oconto Conference boys basketball standings.

The positive in that: One team would remove the glaring goose egg from the win column.

Unfortunately for Gillett, it will have to wait to pick up that initial conference victory under first-year head coach Kelly Willson.

Wausaukee trailed 1-0 in the opening few minutes and then took the lead and never relinquished it in a 59-47 victory in Gillett.

“We did a lot of nice things tonight, we just turned the ball over at key situations, missed some rebounds, missed some early layups, free throws, things of that nature,” Willson said. “I thought it was definitely a winnable game.”

Gillett (1-13, 0-11 M&O) could never get over the hump after falling behind. Once Wausaukee (1-14, 1-11 M&O) built a double-digit lead with about 14 minutes left in the game, Gillett could not cut it under 10 points.

The future of the Oconto Falls girls basketball team was on display Monday.

The Panthers, who were without leading scorer Jenny Krueger, started two underclassmen and played seven freshmen and sophomores against visiting Waupaca.

The underclassmen logged some valuable experience, but Oconto Falls – which hit just six field goals – lost 36-24 in a North Eastern Conference matchup.

Even though Oconto Falls is 16 games into the season, some of the girls are playing at the speed of junior varsity competition, coach Mike Kaczmarek said.

“We have to learn how to play at the varsity basketball level,” Kaczmarek said. “We’re not coming off screens hard, we don’t cut hard right now. Defensively, we don’t box out hard. We’re just a young team that’s got to mature as we go.”

Oconto Falls High School senior Nate Trepanier, who is 33-1 on the year, picked up his 150th career victory en route to the 152-pound title Saturday at the Invitational.

The Panthers finished in second place, behind tournament champion Kaukauna. Trepanier and fellow senior Mac Winkler, at 182 pounds, were the only Panthers to win individual championships.

Bryce Peterson (120 pounds), Kenton Peterson (132) and Bryce Ash (145) took second place in their respective weight classes.

Other top-six finishers for Oconto Falls included heavyweight Dan Ausloos in third place, Trent Peetz (220) in fourth place, Brice Delzer (170) in fifth, and Noah Stary (138) and Tyler Budz (106) in sixth place.

Oconto Falls has a dual with Division 3 Coleman on the road Thursday before preparations begin for postseason competition, starting Feb. 11 at home for a WIAA Division 2 regional.

Pulaski Invitational

Jan. 28

Pulaski High School

The Suring boys basketball team put an end to Peshtigo’s 18-game Marinette & Oconto Conference winning streak Jan. 24 with a 52-51 victory at home.

The Eagles (9-3, 7-2 Marinette & Oconto Conference), who have three players averaging double figures in scoring, were led by Ryan Mahoney’s game-high 23 points on 4-of-8 shooting from deep to go with his seven rebounds and three steals.

Chris Geniesse pitched in 13 points for Suring, along with a team-high three assists.

The Eagles made 7 of 18 3-pointers, which helped offset trailing Peshtigo in rebounds (32-27), steals (7-6) and blocks (5-3).

Mitch Stegeman added seven points, and John Christensen, who had two blocks, posted six points. Scout Gerndt tallied eight rebounds.

The Bulldogs (10-2, 8-1 M&O) went into the game averaging nearly 75 points per game but were outscored 28-23 in the second half.

Ryley Demmith led Peshtigo with 18 points and a game-high nine rebounds.

When a game wraps up and the players and coaches from each team line up to shake hands, it’s unusual for the two opposing head coaches to embrace.

But that’s what happened Monday following the Gillett and Coleman girls basketball game in which Gillett defeated Coleman 50-35 in Gillett.

With Gillett coach Justin Daul missing the game for a family reasons, second-year assistant Shannon Schaal coached her first career varsity game. On the opposite sideline was her sister, Samantha, the head coach at Coleman.

“Like I told my mom tonight before I left, ‘It could be any other game. Why tonight against my sister?’” Shannon said. “‘Why tonight?’ That was just added pressure.”

Well, the pressure didn’t get to the Gillett players. Holding a five-point, second-half lead, the Tigers used a 16-5 run to pull away from Coleman in Marinette & Oconto Conference action.

What’s it like to beat your sister, Shannon?

One week earlier the Gillett/Suring wrestling team was downed by Coleman, 81-0.

The Gillett/Suring wrestlers wanted to redeem themselves in a Marinette & Oconto Conference dual meet at Lena on Thursday. The team registered five pins and cruised to a 60-6 victory.

“It’s a huge confidence booster for them,” Gillett/Suring coach Brian Tesch said. “You can see it like lift their spirits up, and when we wrestled Coleman a while ago it was just about the exact opposite. They were feeling down after that, so we kind of needed a pick me up.”

There were just six varsity matches on the night. Lena forfeited five matches, and in three weight classes, neither school could field a wrestler.

“I think as a group we were kind of sluggish tonight,” Lena coach Chad Misco said. “It kind of hurts not having practice because of snow days and stuff like that. So actually we haven’t had a good week of practice, but (Gillett/Suring) is in the same boat.”

Suring and Lena entered their boys basketball showdown on Thursday tied for second place in the Marinette & Oconto Conference, one game back of Peshtigo.

Suring was up by three points, 41-38, with 6:05 remaining in the game when Lena responded with a 9-0 run to go up six with 3:19 left. Suring’s shot with 10 seconds on the clock was off, as Lena hung on for a 54-53 victory in Suring.

“We knew going in it was going to be a big game with us tied at second place and we wanted to take a step up,” Lena senior Connor Heise said. “We want to win conference this year as seniors, so that’s a big goal for us. We knew we had to get this one to get that done.”

Lena moves to 6-1 in conference, while Suring drops to 5-2. Peshtigo is 7-0 after downing Wausaukee by 44 points on Jan. 12.