Kelly O’Day
Sports Editor
The Bluejay boys basketball team dropped a couple of winnable home games to Valley foes last week, falling to 1-9 in the league in the process.
The boys lost a 64-50 contest to 3-5 Marshfield last Friday, then hung within a 63-54 game of the second-place team in the WVC – Wausau West – in Monday’s make-up.
West built a 29-21 margin in the first half on Monday, but Merrill roared back to take a five-point lead with six minutes to go. The Warriors rallied late, and used superlative 29-of-33 free throw accuracy to seal the deal.
“Early on we couldn’t make a basket,” MHS coach Kurt Soderberg said. “It literally was six minutes into the game before we made one. Even though we weren’t playing well on offense, our defense was solid. We were still in it with reason to be optimistic.
“After we took the lead we turned it over and they made some big baskets. We did turn it over 13 times, which is above what we should be, and it was the type of turnover – unforced errors, throwing passes away. We shot 41% from the three-point line. It’s hard to say we out-played them except for at the free-throw line, but that’s the way it felt.”
In a complete reversal of fortune, Merrill got just six free throw attempts and made two.
The Jays counted on offerings from Reissmann (15 p, 4 r, 2 a), Scott Wallace (12 p, 4 r, 5 a), Riley Sutton (3 p, 8 r, 3 a), Jared Ollhoff (7 p, 6 r) Zack Mootz (11 p) and Drew Hoff (6 p, 2 a).
WW– 29 – 34 – 50. FG- 15-45 (33%), 3-pt- 4-16 (25%). FT- 29-33 (88%).
Mer– 21 – 33 – 54. FG- 20-43 (47%), 3-pt- 12-29 (41%). FT: 2-6 (33%).
Tiger leap
Another first-half deficit hurt the Jays last Friday. After the Tigers took a 33-19 lead, the teams played to a 31-31 tie in the second half.
“We were up 10-8 early and then on three possessions in a row they hit back-to-back threes and a lay-up,“ Soderberg said. “Our kids battled, but they were not able to finish it down the stretch.
“I’m looking for a game where we put it all together. It hasn’t happened much and I don’t know what the answer is.”
The Jays were led by Hoff (18 p, 3 r, 4 a, 2 st), Wallace (12 p, 2 r, 2 a), Mootz (8 p, 3 r), Reissmann (16 p, 2 r) and Ollhoff (3 r).
Marsh– 33 – 31 – 62. FG- 19-35 (54%), 3-pt- 9-20 (45%). FT- 17-21 (81%).
Mer– 19 – 31 – 38. FG- 17-42 (41%), 3-pt- 9-18 (50%). FT: 7-12 (58%).