By Murray Gleffe
Correspondent
ASHWAUBENON — The West De Pere boys’ basketball team connected on 15 triples en route to an 82-60 road victory over Ashwaubenon in a non-conference game Dec. 3.
“We knew we had a good group of incoming juniors coming into the season,” said Todd Deschane, West De Pere head coach. “They have been successful throughout each stage of their basketball careers. It was nice no one player stood out. Each one contributed to the team effort.”
Marcus Van Vreede led the Phantoms (2-0) with 10 points.
West De Pere had 13 players score at least three points.
The Jaguars (0-2) were paced by Marcus Tomashek, who scored 16 points.
The Phantoms opened up an early 13-9 lead behind the guard play of Van Vreede and Brady Darrow
Kyle Krueger kept the Jaguars close with two post moves in the lane before picking up a key second foul in the first 10 minutes of the game.
He returned for a quick stint to give Ashwaubenon its final lead of the game at 23-21 with 5:10 left in the first half, but then exited after picking up his third foul.
“I’ll have to look at the film to see how many shots were contested,” said Mark Tomashek, Ashwaubenon head coach. “We knew they didn’t have one or two guys who could make threes. They rotate a lot. Give them credit. I think they went over 60 percent from behind the line. We had to change some things up when Kyle left the game. No doubt it hurt us.”
West De Pere’s outside shooting heated up toward halftime as the Phantoms went on a 15-4 run to close out the first half and take a nine-point lead into intermission.
“We picked up the pressure on their ball handlers and hit some big shots to increase our lead,” added Deschane.
In the second half, with the Phantoms leading 41-31, Ashwaubenon guard Brady Wittig was called for a charge, taking a potential three points off the board. It was the start of a huge momentum swing in West De Pere’s favor.
What ensued was a strong display of outside shooting by the Phantoms’ guards.
During an eight-minute stretch, they made 11-of-12 shots and extended the lead to 69-45 with 5:08 remaining.
Down the stretch, both teams emptied their benches as the Phantoms coasted to victory.
“It was a good team win for us this evening,” Deschane said.
Box score
West De Pere: 36, 46—82
Ashwaubenon: 27, 33—60
Phantoms: Van Vreede 10, Hoffman 9, Ricker 8, Darrow 8, Thomas 7, Moran 7, Heck 7, Nordgaard 6, Schneider 5, Skenandore 5, Deschane 4, Schwartz 3, Wall 3
Jaguars: Tomashek 16, Krueger 12, Imig 9, Wittig 7, Vang 4, Dolphin 3, Kelly 3, Spika 2, Zollar 2, Jacobs 2