Fall Creek boys hoops prepare for regional tournament
FALL CREEK - Lone one left.
Fall Creek High School is the last remaining Tri-County Area prep boys' basketball in WIAA regional tournament. The others lost first round games on Tuesday, March 1 with Eleva-Strum (3-20 overall) fall to Royall 55-40, Augusta (11-12 overall) lost at Eau Claire Regis 58-52 in Division 4 and Osseo-Fairchild (5-18 overall) lost at Neillsville also in D-4 by a 77-44 score.
FC, defending regional champs, had a first round bye by virtue of 20-4 overall record and being the No. 3 seed in their sectional half-bracket. Their opponent Friday, March 4 at home in the regional semifinals will be No. 6 seed Neillsville (18-7 overall) with the tip time at 7 p.m. The Crickets have nine out of 10 games (their only loss a 77-74 contest vs. Large Dairyland Conference champ Whitehall) including a dramatic 86-85 win over No. 5 ranked Marshfield Columbus winning the Crickets first overall Cloverbelt championship since 2010. West Cloverbelt Player of the Year sophomore forward Bo Vollrath was back in the line-up last weekend from injury and scored 19 points in the Crickets win. He's averaging nearly 20 points per game and eight rebounds. Fellow all-conference player senior guard Cameron Martzke is averaging nearly 14 points and two assists per game for the Crickets and senior forwards Soren Johnson is averaging nine points and seven rebounds.
The Crickets got a chance to see the Warriors in action last weekend at Neillsville in the Cloverbelt Conference crossovers for first in second place Stanley-Boyd edged Neillsville in the second place game 58-53. The Warriors' top scorer is junior guard Andrew Brown averaging 19 points per game nearly four assists per contest. He had 27 points to lead NHS against O-F. He made first team Eastern Cloverbelt along with teammates senior Mason Roenz and senior Santana Subke. Roenz, the Warriors' 6-6 center, leads the team in rebounding at 10 per game and also averages nearly 14 points per game. Subke, a 6-5 forward, averages nearly nine points and nine rebounds per game.
If FC gets past Neillsville, awaiting them in the regional finals would be a match-up against No. 2 Durand (19-5 overall) or No. 7 seed Mondovi (11-14). These Dunn-St. Croix rivals square off in the other semifinal game on Friday. Durand is the co-champ of the D-SC along with Spring Valley (the No. 1 seed of the sectional half-bracket). Durand has three players scoring double figures led by junior forward Zack Nelson at 14.6 ppg;, 6-3 senior forward Gunnar Hurlburt at 12.8 ppg. and 6-4 sophomore forward Ethan Hurlburt at 12.4 ppg. Gunnar Hurlburt leads the team in rebounding at nearly seven per game while senior guard Simon Bauer, the top boys' athlete in the school, averages five assists per game. Their last contest was a 78-39 blasting of rival Mondovi who they will play Friday in Durand. Mondovi downed No. 10 seed Colfax to advance to the semis led by senior 6-3 forward and top athlete Jarod Falker, who averages 14 points and 11 rebounds per game. 5-8 junior guard Dawson Rud leads the Buffaloes in assists and averages 9.3 ppg. Junior forward Evan Gray averages 12.6 ppg.
The regional championship game is set for Saturday, March 5, at 7 p.m. at the higher remaining seed.
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