By Murray Gleffe
Correspondent
GREEN BAY—Carter Weisnicht was a one-man wrecking crew for the Hawks.
The 6’8” center scored 31 points as the Shawano boys’ basketball team defeated the Green Bay Preble Hornets by a final of 75-60 in a game played Dec. 27 at the Kress Events Center as part of the SunDrop Shootout.
Preble was led in scoring by Ashton Markell who had 21 points.
“It was fun to watch,” said Andy Bobholz, Preble head coach. “The bigs were working hard and making it count on both sides.”
Both teams started the game going a combined 0-10 from the field. Whether it was nerves to start because of the setting, each calmed down three minutes into the contest.
Evan Holm hit a runner in the lane to get the Hornets on the scoreboard.
Four lead changes ensued before Preble took a 16-8 lead on a 10-0 run spurred by three transition baskets by Nic Tuscan.
A little later Connor Novitski hit a corner triple to put the Hornets back in front at 27-25 with 2:57 left till halftime.
Down the stretch, it was all Weisnicht as the Hawks’ guards kept feeding him low in the post to the tune of easy baskets.
The Hawks took a 37-33 lead at intermission after Nick Sherman hit a 28-foot buzzer beating triple to end the half.
Shawano came out and drilled six long range bombs in their first nine possessions to take a 59-46 lead with 11:40 left in the game.
“We always want to contest the outside shot,” added Bobholz. “We were helping obviously with their center (Weisnicht) and then their guard got hot from behind the arc. They didn’t miss many shots to start (second half).”
In fact, after Preble called a time out to stop the spurt, Shawano was shooting a blistering 73 percent in building their double-digit lead.
Markell did all he could to keep the Hornets in the game connecting on an elbow jumper to pull Preble back to 61-55. It was the closest they would get the rest of the way.
“It’s moves we practice all the time to get into position in the paint,” said Markell. “It wasn’t about the one-on-one matchup with their center. It’s about the team.”
Shawano closed the game on a 14-5 run to win their final game as the tournament host.
Box Score:
Green Bay Preble: 33, 27—60
Shawano: 37, 38—75
Hornets: Markell 21, Tuscan 15, Holm 9, VanSeth 6, Novitski 5, Schultz Jr. 4
Hawks: Weisnicht 31, Sherman 24, Mente 7, Schwitzer 5, Dickelman 3, Schulze 3, Nahwanquaw 2