After being handed a 72-35 loss at Hortonville on Jan. 13, Oconto Falls High School boys basketball coach Kirk Hirst was hoping his guys would play better in the team’s next game.
The first half looked promising Thursday night at home against New London, but the Bulldogs turned up the intensity in the third quarter and pulled away en route to a 68-43 victory.
“I don’t think we’re a 25-point deficit to those guys, no disrespect to them,” Hirst said. “I think we can hang with a lot of teams in the Bay and nonconference.”
Oconto Falls (1-8, 1-5 Bay Conference) trailed by just five points at halftime, but four 3-pointers by New London guards Samuel Porath and Jacob Pinch sparked a 12-4 run, and the Bulldogs suddenly had their biggest lead of the game at 13 points, 41-28.
“Any time you come out of halftime and get those buckets, it really helps your confidence and takes away their confidence,” New London coach Ken Jagiello said. “Those shots were just huge and it gave us a good opportunity to stretch the lead.”
From that point on, the Panthers couldn’t get any closer than 13 points. New London (3-7, 2-4 Bay) scored 16 of the final 22 points of the game.
“We’re not the type of ball club that can come back after that,” Hirst said. “We’ll battle, but coming back from a 12-, 14-, 15-point deficit is going to be tough for us.”
After hitting three of seven shots from 3-point range in the first half, Oconto Falls was 0 for 8 in the final two quarters. Shots were rushed in the second half and the Panthers players settled for long, outside jumpers inside of trying to work the ball inside.
“We should have gone back to what we were doing in the first half and we got away from that in the beginning part of the second half, and it kind of bit us in the butt,” Hirst said.
Oconto Falls’ defense kept New London in check in the opening half. The Panthers’ 2-3 zone was working how Hirst drew it up in practice.
“We’ve got a few guys that can play man-to-man, but where we’re going to stay in games is in a zone,” Hirst said. “We let No. 11, Pinch, get off a little bit and we didn’t know where he was at.”
It was New London’s defense that stepped up in the second half. The Bulldogs outscored the Panthers 21-8 in the third quarter.
“We just wanted to pick it up a little bit and be more aggressive, take away their right hand, make them go to the left, ball pressure and see if they could handle it,” Jagiello said.
Pinch scored a game-high 20 points, hitting five of 11 shots from the field. Porath added 15 points.
Oconto Falls was led in scoring by Riley Gruetzmacher with eight points. Bo Shroyer, Dylan Woosmann and Tyler Kowalczyk all contributed six points apiece.
Up next, Oconto Falls will travel to Denmark on Friday. The tip is scheduled for 7:15 p.m.
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