By Murray Gleffe
Correspondent
ASHWAUBENON — Most people know Seymour boys’ basketball player Mason Dorn can score points at will.
What some may not know is how well Dorn can dish the basketball.
While being double-teamed most of the night, Dorn found open looks for teammates Treyton and Tru Cornell, who combined to score 24 points, as No. 3-seeded Seymour hung on for a 66-63 victory over No. 2 Ashwaubenon in a WIAA Division 2 sectional semifinal game Feb. 25 at Ashwaubenon High School.
“We didn’t get lots of respect heading into the game from radio stations,” said Dorn. “We came out with fire and gave it our all down the stretch.”
The Jaguars (20-6) opened an early 15-11 lead after Marcus Tomashek hit a step-back 14-footer.
After Dorn went back-door on an alley-oop layup and Treyton Cornell hit back-to-back triples from the top of the key, Seymour went up 25-18 with 3:48 left until halftime.
“You can’t do it yourself,” said Dorn. “We had lots of guys hitting shots and doing things together.”
In addition, despite being undersized, Seymour (21-6) kept possessions alive with its offensive rebounding.
The Thunder took a 32-23 lead into the break and extended the margin to 40-28 with 12:02 remaining in the game.
“Mason had high-quality looks tonight,” said Bobby Kuchta, Seymour head coach. “He didn’t force anything, and the rest of the guys made shots.”
Trailing by 12 points, Ashwaubenon head coach Mark Tomashek called a timeout to regroup his team.
It paid dividends, as the Jaguars closed the gap to 50-48 with Matt Imig and Tomashek doing much of the damage during the spurt.
Every time Ashwaubenon came within one possession of tying the game or grabbing the lead, Seymour had an answer.
“We tried multiple things on defense against Seymour,” said Mark Tomashek. “They had an answer most of the night. They punched us in the face in the first half. By the time we woke up and started to play, we simply ran out of time.”
Down the stretch, Dorn hit two free throws to put the Thunder up 64-58 with a minute to go.
Imig then hit a 3-pointer to cut the margin to three.
On the subsequent possession, Seymour missed the front end of the one-and-one bonus.
With 11 seconds remaining, the Jaguars set up a play for Imig, but his shot missed wide of the mark.
“Watching film was scary to see all the weapons Ashwaubenon have,” said Kuchta. “Guys bought into what we told them. We knew they’d cut into our lead, but we finished the deal.”
The Thunder advanced to the sectional final where they will face a familiar foe in Xavier Saturday, Feb. 27, for the right to advance to the state tournament.
Box score:
Seymour: 32, 34 — 66
Ashwaubenon: 23, 40 — 63
Thunder: Dorn 26, Treyton Cornell 14, Tru Cornell 10, Griesbach 8, VandenLangenberg 4, Inman 4.
Jaguars: Tomashek 25, Imig 19, Krueger 12, Kirst 3, Zollar 2, Spika 2.