As the Oconto Falls High School boys basketball team’s season drew to a close Friday — with a 64-54 loss to top-seeded Peshtigo in the WIAA Division 3 regional semifinal — there was something in the Panthers’ locker room that perhaps hasn’t been there in recent years: hope for the future.
Oconto Falls (4-8, 2-14 Bay), which had won only two games in its previous two seasons, managed to win four games this season, including a 64-45 win over No. 5 Wittenberg-Birnamwood to open the playoffs Feb. 25.
“We’ve got sophomore kids that went to that Peshtigo game, great atmosphere, great crowd, they saw what it takes,” second-year coach Kirk Hirst said. “Some of the junior kids that were in games all year, I got text messages saying, ‘Hey, we’re excited for next year already.’ That’s a big key right there.”
Hirst said his team started to come together late in the season.
“The last month of the season I thought our guys were playing the best basketball they played all year,” he said. “I think they really started to understand what it took to play as a team and they bought in.”
Oconto Falls, the No. 4 seed, took a small lead early against Wittenberg-Birnamwood and led 22-19 at halftime before blowing open the game with 42 second-half points to the Chargers’ 26.
“The physicality of Oconto Falls got to us tonight and took us out of our game offensively,” Witt-Birn coach Lon Ebel said. “They just wore us down in the second half and we were dominated on the boards.”
Riley Gruetzmacher, 6-foot-5 junior, scored 22 points to lead the Panthers. Michael Fifield added 11.
“They played absolutely phenomenal basketball that second half,” Hirst said.
Brant Linke led Wittenberg-Birnamwood (6-17, 2-12 Central Wisconsin Conference-8) with 16.
Oconto Falls carried that momentum into the first quarter of the semifinal against Peshtigo (22-2, 16-0 Marinette & Oconto), taking a 28-18 lead.
Peshtigo then went on an 11-0 run, holding the Panthers scoreless in the second quarter. Oconto Falls led 50-45 at the end of the third, but watched as the Bulldogs pulled off the fourth-quarter rally to win it.
“That one I would like to have back,” Hirst said. “We knew we could play with them.”
Peshtigo’s Jordan Berth led his team with 22 points. Zack Neumann scored 19, including 13 in the fourth quarter.
“We knew we had to shut one down and limit the other one,” Hirst said. “For three quarters, we did that. Then we got tired. We ran out of gas in the fourth quarter.”
Fifield, 6-8 junior center, led the Panthers with 16 points. Tyler Kowalczyk added 10.
As the coach looks down the road, he sees the program growing.
“I think we’ve turned a corner, I really do,” Hirst said. “I think these kids have bought into it, and I’m talking all the way down to the grade-school level. … There’s a lot of exciting stuff coming for Oconto Falls basketball.”
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