Bowler boys power past Tigerton in CWC-North basketball clash

The Bowler High School boys basketball team dominated in the paint while cruising to a 72-37 Central Wisconsin Conference-North Division win over Tigerton on Jan. 11 in Tigerton.

With each team missing players, it was Bowler that took advantage. The Panthers were down a couple guards, so they decided to focus on working the ball inside and controlling the paint.

Junior Beau Brunner and senior Wylee Dodge spent most of their time on the offensive end of the floor above the 3-point line, working the ball around the perimeter before firing passes to junior post players Emmitt Kietlinski and Tristan Thiex.

Kietlinski and Thiex combined for 50 points in the contest, with Kietlinski scoring 30 points on 15 made field goals and Thiex adding 20 points on nine field goals and a pair of free throws.

Kietlinski said the team practiced getting three post players into the paint on the offensive end so they could use their height and size to their advantage.

“We had a triangle in the post, really trying to work from the high post to the low post,” said Kietlinski.” Obviously, I thought we did that today.”

At the start of the game, Bowler got out to an 11-7 lead, with the teams combining for four 3-pointers over that time.

After Tigerton junior Asher Michaelis left with his second foul at the 12:34 mark, Bowler started to pull away by scoring in the paint.

Bowler used a 10-4 run to create a comfortable lead and then used a 26-5 spurt to run away with the game.

The Panthers led 51-21 at halftime, with Kietlinski and Thiex combining for 32 points. Dodge had all nine of his points in the first half and Brunner hit a couple 3-pointers and tallied eight of his 11 points in the opening half.

Thiex noted that the Panthers were “very strong with big guys in the post, so we tried to utilize that to our full ability and I think we did a good job of that tonight.”

Bowler’s play in the second half wasn’t as dominant as it was in the first 18 minutes, but the Panthers were eventually able to stretch the lead out to 40 points with just under eight minutes to play, at which time the team pulled its starters.

Kietlinski converted five more shots in the second half, while Thiex hit three more and made a couple free throws. Brunner added his third triple for the team’s other three points.

“It just gives us a lot of confidence, especially in the conference,” said Kietlinski on what the win means for the team. “We’ve played some good conference games, we’ve played some tough conference opponents so we like this conference win — to win by quite a few here tonight and we hope to take it forward into the next games, nonconference and conference.”

“I think we did a really good job with defense tonight,” said Thiex. “We really got pressure on the ball, and we really moved the ball well. I think the biggest thing is just working on our passes and working the ball into the post — we did a pretty good job tonight, but there’s always things we can do better.”

While Tigerton was unable to get into a good rhythm, the Tigers continued to play hard until the final buzzer sounded.

Senior Zeke Griepentrog led the Tigers with 10 points, while junior Tyler Dent had nine points.

Down a few players, Tigerton started a pair of freshmen. Maverick Maas had seven points, while Joey Zimdars had six.

While Tigerton is eager to get its entire roster of players back, Griepentrog believes the varsity experience gained against Bowler could help the team moving forward.

“Some of our freshmen got their first varsity playing time, their first varsity experiences. It’s nice to see them score,” said Griepentrog, who added the team’s passing is the thing that needs the most improvement.

Bowler 51 21 — 72

Tigerton 21 16 — 37

Bowler (72): Emmitt Kietlinski 0-0 30, Beau Brunner 0-1 11, Tristan Thiex 2-3 20, Wylee Dodge 0-0 9, Damian Terrio 0-2 0, Bryce Teuchert 0-0 2.

Tigerton (37): Maverick Maas 1-2 7, Tyler Dent 1-2 9, Ethan Carlson 0-0 2, Joey Zimdars 1-2 6, Zeke Griepentrog 2-6 10, Asher Michaelis 1-3 3.

sports@newmedia-wi.com