When Shawano Community High School senior Zeke Gueths and sophomore Dakota Maltbey weren’t facing foul trouble Monday night, they were dominating their Sturgeon Bay opponents.
Unfortunately, the two centers, who combined for 24 points, spent much of the second half on the bench due to fouls as the Clippers escaped with a 69-62 nonconference win.
Gueths had 5 points before picking up his second foul less than six minutes into the game. Maltbey scored 4 points over the next five minutes before Gueths returned and scored eight points in the remaining seven minutes as Shawano went up 34-32 at intermission.
“We really didn’t have an answer for (Gueths),” Sturgeon Bay head coach Jim Benesh said. “Foul trouble, obviously, helped us enormously.”
Maltbey finished the half with 8 points.
“When (Gueths and Maltbey) were in there, they were doing an excellent job of sealing their man, catching the ball and finishing,” Shawano head coach Dave Ambrosius said. “Their teammates were doing a great job of finding them in spots where they didn’t have to do a lot of work. All they had to do was just catch and lay it in.”
Gueths, who had at least a 30-pound advantage on any of the Sturgeon Bay players, went to the bench with four fouls with about 15 minutes remaining in the game and the Hawks losing by 1.
Shawano never held more than a 2-point lead in the second half and trailed by 1 before sophomore Jacob Lacy hit a 3-pointer for a 41-39 lead with 10:13 remaining.
But then Maltbey got into foul trouble as well, causing the Hawks to play 6-foot-5 junior forward Austin Kohl at the center position for the next three minutes.
“I think having those two go out when they were dominating the game, I think forced some other guys to step up, and I think we just didn’t make the shots,” Ambrosius said.
Shawano was losing 47-44 when Gueths re-entered the game with four fouls; he picked up his fifth foul trying to post up about two minutes later.
A short time later, Ambrosius picked up a technical foul for arguing calls, which helped bring energy back to the Hawks, who were trailing by 4.
Despite allowing just three made free throws over the next two minutes, Shawano could never cut the deficit to fewer than 3 points.
Adam Bartz, who finished with 9 points, then fouled out, leaving the Hawks without their two senior leaders for the remaining 1:44.
“We struggled a little bit with our decision making without Zeke (Gueths) or Adam (Bartz) on the floor, so obviously that’s something we’re going to have to learn as we go here a little bit. We’ll watch some film, we’ll get them better and we’ll improve from it,” Ambrosius said. “Every day is an opportunity to get better, so we’ll learn from this and move on.”
Kohl added 10 points for Shawano (6-10, 5-4 Bay Conference).
Sturgeon Bay (8-7, 5-4 Packerland) made 24 of 29 free throws, including 13 by Ryan Jackson, who led the Clippers in scoring with 24 points. Sturgeon Bay entered the game without two of its regulars and lost starting guard Montana Gunnlaugsson to an ankle injury.
“I thought everybody stepped up … and played huge tonight,” Benesh said. “It is a good win for us against a very good team. Shawano is a good team.”
Sturgeon Bay (69)
Kurschner 1 0-0 2, R. Jackson 5 13-15 24, M. Jackson 2 5-7 10, Medlen 1 0-0 3, Mielke 2 0-1 4, Gunnlaugsson 3 0-0 8, Talbert 0 1-2 1, Rose 2 0-0 4, Nellis 3 3-5 9, Van Bramer 1 2-2 4.
Shawano (62)
Richards 2 0-0 6, Nelson 1 2-3 5, Lacy 1 0-0 3, Hesse 2 1-2 5, Bartz 1 7-9 9, Kohl 4 1-2 10, Maltbey 5 1-3 11, Gueths 4 5-8 13.
Sturgeon Bay 32 37 — 69
Shawano 34 28 — 62
Categories
