By Rich Palzewic
Sports Editor
GREEN BAY – The Green Bay Southwest boys’ basketball team has a two-game winning streak over Bay Port after a 69-62 Fox River Classic Conference victory Feb. 11 at Southwest High School.
The Trojans (17-1 overall, 13-1 FRCC), the No. 3-ranked Division 2 team in the state, also beat the Pirates (12-6, 11-4) in mid-December.
Bay Port came into the Feb. 11 game winners of seven straight.
“I’ve seen some recent film on Bay Port and they are really playing good ball,” said Southwest head coach John Polkowski. “We knew it was going to be a hard-fought game, so I was glad to come away with the victory. We were happy we got to the free-throw line so much, but we need to make more.”
The Trojans had 47 free-throw attempts but converted only 26 times (55 percent).
In comparison, the Pirates were just 7-of-9 from the charity stripe.
Both teams shot a solid 45 percent from the floor.
“I have to give credit to both teams for how hard they played,” said Bay Port head coach Nate Rykal, whose team committed 29 fouls compared to the Trojans’ 10. “Southwest did a great job getting to the line and got the 50-50 balls. I didn’t say much to the officials – we had a lot of silly fouls early when we shouldn’t have.”
Southwest’s Will Pytleski was a force in scoring 26 points and pulling down 17 rebounds. Twelve of his points came from the free-throw line.
“It just comes with being aggressive and crashing hard,” said the 6-foot-3 senior Pytleski, who also added five assists, three steals and nabbed seven offensive rebounds in his 35 minutes of play. “Bay Port does a good job of being aggressive, so I knew it was a game I needed to step up. Beating them both times this year – maybe it’s our first two wins overall against them – the rivalry is ramping up. It was an intense game.”
The teams went into intermission deadlocked at 36 after playing a very entertaining first half, with neither team having more than a four-point lead.
Things stayed that way throughout the second 18 minutes of the game, with the Pirates having their last lead (53-51) with 8 minutes remaining.
From there, the Trojans ended with an 18-9 run, including scoring their last 12 points from the free-throw line.
Bay Port committed its seventh foul of the second half at the 9:47 mark to put Southwest into the bonus situation early.
The game also featured two significant injuries, one on each side.
After scoring five points in the first half, Southwest’s Lucas Stieber went down 1:20 into the second half with a right hip/groin injury. Stieber returned for a short period of time 11 minutes later but quickly exited the game shortly thereafter.
He came into the contest averaging 14 points per game.
Bay Port’s Ethan Begotka went down with an ankle injury halfway through the second half and did not return. Begotka had 15 points up to that point.
Carson Landry and Ty Melchert scored 12 and 11 points, respectively, for the Trojans, while Logan Geissler led the Pirates with 18.
Landry also added nine rebounds.
Mohamed Salem scored nine points and hauled in eight rebounds for Bay Port.
Box score
Bay Port: 36, 26 – 62
Southwest: 36, 33 – 69
Pirates: Begotka 15, Plummer 2, Farrington 5, Weber 4, Thomas 7, Salem 9, Geissler 18, Plumb 2.
Trojans: Melchert 11, Baade 3, L. Stieber 5, Landry 12, O. Stieber 6, Way 6, Pytleski 26.