By Murray Gleffe, Correspondent
DE PERE- 6’7 Brad Nies (22 points) and 6’9 Patrick Danen (15 points) were too much to handle for the Jaguars as the Redbirds claimed a 71-60 boys’ basketball victory Monday evening at De Pere High School.
The Redbirds had 50 frontcourt points compared to just 12 for the Jaguars.
De Pere also had a +13 margin on the glass.
Anthony Guarascio once again turned in an amazing performance pouring in 31 points, 5 rebounds, and 2 steals.
Jeremy Cox added 9, and Kenneth Brooks had 6 in a losing effort.
Both teams started the game torching the nets from inside and out.
Guarascio scored six of the first eight for the Jaguars, but Nies countered inside the paint for the Redbirds.
He scored on three straight possessions to give the Redbirds an early 16-10 lead with 11:15 left till halftime.
The Jaguars tried to fend off Nies from getting touches down low, but they still had big man Danen to control as well.
It all added up to double-trouble for the Jaguar front-line.
“We tried to front the post,” said Jaguars Basketball Coach Chris Karcz. “I though we did a pretty good job with that but our weakside help just wasn’t there tonight. It was a difficult task going up against tremendous height, but we have to find a way to combat it somehow, someway. They got way too many layups and easy buckets in the first 18 minutes, and it resulted in us fighting from behind all night.”
Later in the half, Redbirds guard Austin Allen hit a long field goal from just inside the three-point arc, and Nies continued his assault in the lane to increase their lead to seven.
Near the end of the half, Jaguars guard Jeremy Cox came off the bench after getting into early foul trouble and hit two triples.
The latter tied the game at 29-29.
The Redbirds went on a mini spurt to take a four-point lead at halftime.
The Redbirds enjoyed incredible success in the paint in the first half, and then decided to take it outside in the second half with an unlikely candidate!
With the Jaguars playing zone for a big portion of the opening six minutes of half number two, Redbirds Center Danen stepped out and connected on four long range two-point field goals as the Jaguars’ defenders sagged off him.
With the Redbirds connecting on their shots, they opened up a 44-34 lead with 13:43 remaining in the game.
On the next Jaguars possession, Griffin Baierl connected on a bomb to cut the margin to seven.
Small forward Ben Collette got into the action by connecting on two mid-range jumpers to push the margin back up for the Redbirds.
Then Guarascio put on a show for those in attendance. From 9:28 to 1:43 (left in the game), he scored 19 of the teams 21 points. It was an amazing highlight reel of him coming off screens, releasing the ball quickly, and having the fans on both sides gasping when the ball found the net each time.
Unfortunately, for the Jaguars, they could not put enough stops together on the defensive side of things to trim the margin below five the rest of the way.
The Redbirds hit 14 of 16 free throws down the stretch to win the game by 11 points.
“Anthony kept us in the ball game hitting those difficult shots,” Karcz added. “We just couldn’t get a stop against De Pere when we absolutely needed one. We had it down to a few possessions late in the game and they came up with a big shot or made their free throws.”
The Jaguars fall to 3-15 overall and 3-11 in the FRCC
Up Next: The Jaguars will host the Notre Dame Tritons on Feb. 9
Note: Kyle Krueger was recently brought up from the JV team. He connected on two late FT’s.
De Pere/Ashwaubenon Box Score
De Pere 33,38, -71
Ashwaubenon 29,31, -60
Redbirds Final Totals: FG’s 23-52, 3 PT FG’s 3-10, FT’s 22-29, Rebounds 31, Steals 5, Personal Fouls 13
Nies 22, Danen 15, Collette 13, Allen 12, Laubenstein 5, Kinziger 4
Jaguars Final Totals: FG’s 22-54, 3 PT FG’s 12-19, FT’s 4-9, Rebounds 18, Steals 4, Personal Fouls 19
Guarascio 31, Cox 9, Brooks 6, Wood 5, Muscavitch 4, Baierl 3, Krueger 2
