Jaguars fall to Red Raiders in boys’ basketball

By Murray Gleffe, Correspondent

ASHWAUBENON-The Ashwaubenon Jaguar boys’ basketball team went toe-to-toe with the Pulaski Red Raiders for much of the evening.

The Red Raiders, however, closed strong and went onto win the Fox River Classic game (Dec. 14) by a final of 49-43.

“I thought we played pretty well in the first half,” said Chris Karcz, Jaguar Basketball Coach. “We took advantage of some opportunities and we were tied going into the half.”

The Jaguars were led by Bryant Phillips who had 15 points.

Anthony Guarascio added 11, and Griffin Baierl chipped in 8.

The Red Raiders started the game with a Trevor Stiede three pointer from the left wing, and a Pierce Narges runner in the lane to give them an early 5-0 lead.

The Jaguars responded with eight straight. During the run, Baierl and Phillips each canned a trey, and Will Adair hit a mid-range jumper to give Ashwaubenon an 8-5 lead with 12:26 remaining in the first half.

Both teams then went a combined 8-25 to finish the half out.

Just before intermission, Stiede was fouled attempting a triple.

He was awarded three free throws, and hit nothing but net on all of them.

It evened the score at 18 all heading into halftime.

The Jaguars started the second half by scoring seven of the first nine points.

The Red Raiders kept in the game, however, behind the play of Stiede and Narges.

With the Jaguars clinging to a two-point lead later in the half, Narges knifed into the lane and banked a shot off the window to even the score at 27 all.

The Jaguars would enjoy their last lead of the evening when Baierl made one of two free throws to put his team up 30-29 with 9:29 left in the game.

The Red Raiders took control with crisp shooting and a pesky half-court trap that caused the Jaguars to rush many shots down the stretch.

The result was a 13-6 run by the road team that put them up 42-36 with just under five minutes to play.

The Jaguars would get no closer than two points the rest of the way, and the Red Raiders went on to capture the game by six points.

“We have to find a way to win close games,” added Karcz. “We are not that far off, and the effort was very good today. We need to fine tune our execution and believe that we can beat anybody.”

The Jaguars fall to 1-5 on the season, and will travel to Green Bay Southwest on Dec. 19.

Pulaski/Ashwaubenon Box Score

Pulaski                   18,31, -49

Ashwaubenon     18,25, -43

Red Raider Totals: FG’s 17-40, 3 PT FG’s 6-15, FT’s 9-9, Rebounds 21, Steals 3, Personal Fouls 8

Stiede 15, Narges 14, Hendricks 8, Egnarski 6, Ahrens 4, Lukasik 2

Jaguar Totals: FG’s 18-44, 3 PT FG’s 5-12, FT’s 2-5, Rebounds 14, Steals 5, Personal Fouls 8

Phillips 15, Guarascio 11, Baierl 8, Cox 4, Adair 3, Wendorf 2