By Murray Gleffe
Correspondent

GREEN BAY — Green Bay Southwest guard Owen Stieber has unlimited range on a basketball court.

Never was it so evident in the Trojans’ 78-71 Fox River Classic Conference victory over Notre Dame Academy at Southwest High School Jan. 24.

Stieber buried seven three-point shots in the come-from-behind victory.

Stieber led the Trojans (4-9 overall, 4-5 FRCC) with 28 points, while Connor Pytleski had 16 points and Cam Baade added 15.

Southwest has won three of its last four games.

“My shot was looking good tonight,” said Stieber. “I give credit to my teammates. I was running off a number of screens to get open and they found me the ball in rhythm.”

Keegan King and George Kress paced the Tritons (4-9, 2-7) with 13 points apiece.

The first half featured a couple of runs before both teams settled in.

It was the Trojans who jumped out to a 12-4 lead, but Notre Dame responded with a 14-2 run to regain an 18-14 lead with 10:43 remaining in the first half.

The Tritons took a 39-34 lead into halftime.

Notre Dame quickly extended the margin to 47-37 after Danny Nennig buried a 23-footer from the corner.

With 8:17 remaining, Southwest trailed 60-49.

Southwest was struggling on both ends of the floor, but it all changed in the blink of an eye.

Baade and Kaiden Bruley hit short jumpers, and then Stieber went scorching hot from distance.

In a matter of 81 seconds, he scored 11 points to give the Trojans a 64-63 lead with 5:08 left.

“When Stieber gets hot like he did from distance, it frees his teammates around him to do good things,” said Southwest head coach John Polkowski. “We talked at halftime about forcing Notre Dame to double him, and I thought Connor and Cam did a nice job reacting on the offensive end.”

Down the stretch, with Southwest holding a 69-67 lead, Ty Melchert hit a baseline jumper to extend the lead to two possessions.

The Trojans hit 7-of-8 free throws the final minute to ice the game.

“We have a long way to go,” Polkowski said. “We’re young and just starting to find ourselves now. Obviously, everybody’s goal is to be the best at the end of February heading into postseason.”

Box score

Notre Dame: 39, 32—71

Southwest: 34, 44—78

Tritons: Kress 13, King 13, Schumer 11, Mitchell 10, Grzesk 10, Nennig 7, D. Hornacek 4, Anderson 2, M. Hornacek 1

Trojans: Stieber 28, Pytleski 16, Baade 15, Danforth 9, Melchert 8, Bruley 2