By Murray Gleffe, Correspondent
ASHWAUBENON-The Ashwaubenon Jaguar boys basketball team fell to the West De Pere Phantoms Tuesday evening (Nov. 28) 69-62 in a non-conference game.
The Jaguars were led by Bryant Phillips who poured in 30 points. Anthony Guarascio added 19 points and 7 rebounds.
The Jaguars Phillips got going right from the beginning of the game.
He canned a three pointer to give the Jaguars an early 3-2 lead.
The Phantoms countered with a lethal interior presence in Jake Karchinski (who had a team high 21 points).
Karchinski canned a couple of early buckets to give his team the lead at 12-6 with 11:28 left in the first half.
With the Phantoms leading 20-19, the Jaguars Guarascio stole a pass in the front court and went coast to coast for the lay-in. It put the Jaguars back on top.
The Jaguars extended that lead to three (26-23) when Senior Jeremy Cox connected on a triple from the top of the key.
The Jaguars took a precarious 28-27 lead into the intermission.
Nine lead changes had occurred in the first half between the two rivals.
Guarascio opened the second half with a step back three.
Then a couple minutes later, Senior guard Griffin Baierl took a hit, put the basket home, and connected on the free throw. The Jaguars enjoyed their biggest lead of the evening at 35-29 with 16:19 remaining in the game.
The Phantoms called time out and came out with a new wrinkle in their half-court defense.
They went to a corner trap every time the Jaguars had the ball.
It forced the Jaguars to put up shots from long distance.
At that point, the Jaguars had connected on 53% of their shots. That percentage went way down during the course of the next eight minutes.
The Phantoms ripped off a 22-8 run during that time frame and went from being down six to being up eight (51-43) with 8:05 left in the contest.
Jaguar Head Coach Chris Karcz called a timeout to switch things up.
The Jaguars then showed their resiliency by going on a 9-0 run themselves.
The Jaguars had reclaimed the lead at 52-51 with 6:11 left.
Unfortunately, it would be the last lead the Jaguars would enjoy the rest of the evening.
The Phantoms took control of the glass with Karchinski, and Guard Jovan Webb connected on three big shots to put the Phantoms back up 65-58 with just over two minutes remaining in the game.
The Jaguars couldn’t make a shot down the stretch and fell to the Phantoms by seven points.
The Jaguars sit at 0-2 on the young season and will be back in action Dec. 5 when they host the Green Bay West Wildcats.
West De Pere/Ashwaubenon Box Score
West De Pere 27, 42 69
Ashwaubenon 28, 34 62
Phantom Totals: FG’s 27-57, 3 PT FG’s 4-14, FT’s 11-17, Rebounds 22, Steals 3, Turnovers 3, Personal Fouls 13
Karchinski 21, Eisch 12, Webb 11, Jindra 8, Govin 8, Edinger 4, Kempen 3, Kocken 2
Jaguar Totals: FG’s 21-51, 3 PT FG’s 9-26, FT’s 11-14, Rebounds 16, Steals 5, Turnovers 8, Personal Fouls 14
Phillips 30, Guarascio 19, Baierl 8, Cox 3, Wendorf 1, Adair 1