Boys Basketball: Witt-Birn pulls away from Menominee Indian

WITTENBERG — The Wittenberg-Birnamwood High School boys basketball took control of a back-and-forth Central Wisconsin Conference-East Division battle with Menominee Indian with an 11-0 second-half run and held on late for a 67-59 victory on Thursday.

Knotted at 44 with under eight minutes to play, junior Austin Gibson converted the go-ahead bucket and sparked Witt-Birn’s run.

Senior Simon Stewart converted a shot that forced a Menominee Indian timeout, but the Chargers kept the momentum. Senior Brendan Resch converted his fourth 3-pointer of the game before Stewart and sophomore Jack Fraaza made two throws each to complete the run and put the hosts up 55-44 with just over four minutes to play.

Over the stretch, Witt-Birn switched up its defense multiple times to keep Menominee Indian’s fast-paced attack off rhythm.

“I think they (Menominee Indian) were getting comfortable and we needed to kind of take them out of rhythm. So, I think switching from man to zone kind of got them a little out of rhythm, forced them to take some rushed shots. We were able to capitalize on some mistakes, some bad passes out of the zone. Then, once we were ahead, I felt like we were a little more patient with the ball, we worked for good shots and finished around the rim,” said Witt-Birn coach Garrett Rogowski.

Menominee Indian continued to battle until the final whistle, cutting the deficit to four, 57-53, with 1:10 to play after a 3-pointer from senior Norman Kakwitch and two free throws from junior Mason Frechette.

The Chargers were able to seal up their win from the free throw line, making 10 of their final 14 attempts.

Resch led a 3-point barrage for Witt-Birn in the opening half, which saw the teams trade runs. Of the host’s 26 first-half points, 18 came from behind the 3-point arc — Resch hit three of the six triples and led the team with 21 points for the contest.

Senior Logan Balliett hit two first-half 3-pointers and finished with nine points, while Gibson hit the other 3.

It was Gibson and Resch that powered the hosts in the second half. Resch scored 12 points and hit seven free throws, while Gibson tallied 11 points and made five free throws.

Stewart scored 12 points while helping keep Menominee Indian off the offensive glass. Sophomore Ben Wesolowski contributed seven points.

Rogowski said the game was similar to many the team has played this season, with the score being tight in the latter part of the second half. He thinks the win could be big for the team moving forward as it was able to come out on the right side of the scoreboard after failing to do so in previous contests.

“We’re just trying to keep our hopes us. We know we’re capable of it, so we’re just trying to keep going and get the wins because we’re in all the games pretty much — except for one this year. So, we’re just trying to stay on the right track,” said Resch.

Despite coming up short at the final buzzer, Menominee Indian showed that it could rally from deficits multiple times in the contest.

The Eagles trailed 24-17 with under six minutes to play in the first half before going on a 7-2 run to end the half and go into halftime down just two.

When faced with the 11-point deficit in the second half, the Eagles didn’t hang their heads, stayed aggressive to get to the line and hit some clutch 3s to hang around.

“We were just fouling too much,” said Menominee Indian sophomore Andre Corn on what led to the 11-0 Witt-Birn run. “We weren’t hitting shots. We turned the ball over a couple times.”

Kakwitch scored a team-high 20 points, 13 of which came in the second half. Sophomore Wendell Waukau and Corn each chipped in 10 points.

Waukau and Kakwitch helped the team ease into the game, splitting the first 12 points. Corn scored all 10 of his points in the second half, including the team’s first six points.

“If we lose a game and we’re playing hard and we’re just not hitting shots, I can live with that and sleep good at night,” said Menominee Indian coach James Oshkeshequoam. “Our guys played hard, we played defense and rebounded, so I’m going to walk away happy. We didn’t shoot the best, so it’s a tough loss but a good one because we played hard.”

Menominee Indian 24 35 — 59

Wittenberg-Birnamwood 26 41 — 67

Wittenberg-Birnamwood (67): Brendan Resch 7-10 21, Ben Wesolowski 1-2 7, Jack Fraaza 4-4 4, Logan Balliett 3-4 9, Simon Stewart 2-4, 12, Austin Gibson 5-11 14.

Menominee Indian (59): Tiger Dixon 0-0 3, Allen Smith 2-2 2, Menom Powless 0-0 6, Andre Corn 2-5 10, Mason Frechette 3-4 6, Wendell Waukau 2-3 10, Raymond Fish 0-2 2, Norman Kakwitch 4-6 20.

sports@newmedia-wi.com