The Merrill boys faced an important but tough task on Friday night – take second-place WVC rights away from Wis. Rapids on the Raiders’ home court.
The Bluejays built a 27-16 lead through halftime, then held on in the second half for a 52-51 triumph as Rapids out-scored them by five points per quarter.
“It’s a huge win,” MHS coach Kurt Soderberg said. “The kids really wanted the win and it showed. It’s one of the most satisfying wins in my eight years here. It’s the product of a lot of hard work from a lot of people.
“It was secured at Rapids, which has become our biggest rival in the Valley. There’s a mutual respect, but it’s also highly physical.”
It took a fantastic effort to lock down at least a share of the conference runner-up spot behind the state’s #2 SPASH (11-0, 19-1). Merrill is at 7-5 (13-9 overall), and only D.C. Everest (6-5) has a chance to catch them in Tuesday’s game with Rapids (5-6).
“I thought the kids played their most complete game of the year,” Soderberg said. “They were very good on defense and really efficient on offense. We scored 1.2 points/possession and our goal is to be at one (p/p).
“We shortened our bench and got really key minutes out of Jon (Gruetzmacher), Trey (Stevenson), Riley (Sutton) and Drew (Hoff). Our starting five led us most of the way. Keenan (Stellingworth) was really effective, and strong and physical.
“Austin (Reissmann) hit some really big threes for us. Jake (Anderson) was as aggressive offensively as we’ve seen this year. Scottie (Wallace) was really solid at point guard. Chaz was his usual really-hard-to-guard self.”
The Jays’ production came from Mootz (22 p, 9 r, 3 st, 5 a), Stellingworth (12 p, 3 r), Anderson (6 p, 5 r, 2 st, 2 a), Reissmann (6 p, 3 r, 2 a), Wallace (4 p, 2 r) and Gruetzmacher (2 p).
MHS–FG: 18-28 (64%). FT: 14-19 (74%). WR–FG: 18-41 (44%). FT: 8-12 (67%).
Merrill collected the #1 regional seed and will host the winner of Tuesday’s contest between #5 Wausau East and #6 Lakeland at 7:00 p.m. next Friday, March 6.