Bonduel boys basketball team drops clash to Shiocton

The Bonduel High School boys basketball team overcame a slow start to the first half, but couldn’t overcome a slow start to the second half during a 75-52 Central Wisconsin Conference-East Division loss to Shiocton on Jan. 7 in Bonduel.

Bonduel sophomore Charlie Tauchen knocked in a 3-pointer on the team’s first possession of the game, but it turned out to be the team’s lone points in the first five minutes of the contest. The next time the Bears scored, they were already down 12 points, 15-3.

Bonduel struggled to get into rhythm against the Shiocton zone defense, turning the ball over several times and having most of their shots being heavily contested.

A 3-pointer from senior Reece Stoltenow broke the Bears’ scoreless streak and sparked a comeback attempt. Over the final 12:35 of the half, Bonduel outscored Shiocton 27-20 to trail by just five at the break.

“We knew they were a good team, we knew they were going to be aggressive. We came out a little slow,” said Bonduel sophomore Noah Weier. “We picked it up — our coaches got on us, we got on each other. I think we have the ability to play smart, we just gotta do it throughout the whole time and not let them get that headstart on us because we were just crawling back slowly and we just couldn’t get over the hill that we dug ourselves.”

Bonduel continued to chip into the deficit at the start of the second half, getting it down to three after buckets from senior Jon Sell and Stoltenow.

The Bears then went into a funk for the second time in the contest and were on the wrong end of a 14-0 run. After spending most of the game battling back and expending a lot of energy to get back within striking distance, Bonduel wasn’t able to kick it up another gear, and Shiocton ran away with the win.

“We came out flat both halves. We gotta find ways to make shots and play better defense,” said Stoltenow. “Hats off to them. They made shots but we didn’t contest many of those shots. We just came out flat and didn’t have the intensity we usually have to start the game. So that’s kind of where we got killed overall.”

It was Weier that led Bonduel in scoring with 16 points, while Stoltenow had 14 points. Stoltenow made four of the team’s 10 3-pointers.

While that 3-point total is typically enough for a team to win a game, Shiocton finished with 12 triples on the night.

Tauchen hit three more of Bonduel’s 3-pointers and had 11 points. Junior Karter Schroeder chipped in seven points, while Sell had the other four.

Shiocton also had three guys in double figures, but those three combined for 61 points and 11 3-pointers.

While the loss was a blow to the Bears’ conference title aspirations, the group knows there’s still a lot of season left and that learning from the loss to Shiocton is the most important thing now.

“First, we got to look at the bad things we did. This game we probably got killed on the offensive rebounding. We got to go back, look what we did wrong, come to practice on Sunday and get ready for our next game,” said Stoltenow.

“We know basketball is a game of runs. We just have to play off of our own momentum and make our own momentum, feed off of the crowd,” said Weier. “Hopefully not let it get too much in our emotions but also be emotional and help us play off that.”

Shiocton 35 40 — 75

Bonduel 30 22 — 52

Shiocton (75): Bennett Wilcox 4-5 15, Cody Young 0-0 3, Dawson Schmidt 2-2 26, Cade Stingle 0-0 6, Evan Putzer 2-7 4, Jacob Klitzke 0-0 20, Harrison Hofacker 1-2 1.

Bonduel (52): Reece Stoltenow 0-0 14, Charlie Tauchen 0-1 11, Noah Weier 0-1 16, Karter Schroeder 0-0 7, Will Bloedorn 0-2 0, Jon Sell 0-0 4.

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