Dec. 12 is a date the Shawano Community High School boys basketball players remember fondly.
That’s when Seymour dealt Shawano its lone home loss of the season. It was a thumping, 50-33, and the lowest point total the Hawks had scored all year.
On Tuesday night, the Hawks had a chance at redemption in Seymour.
What made the matchup more intriguing was Shawano trailed Bay Conference-leading Seymour by just one game in the standings.
Shawano stayed with Seymour until early in the third quarter. That’s when the Thunder went on a 27-10 run, turning a two-point lead into a big 44-25 advantage midway through the fourth quarter. Seymour went on to score a 49-32 victory.
Shawano coach Chris Kellett and his players didn’t think about avenging their loss six weeks earlier.
“The kids just wanted to play harder, and I thought the kids played hard today,” Kellett said. “But our shots didn’t fall and their big guy did a good job on ours. I thought that was the difference in the game, that we just could not hit our shots.”
Shawano (12-3, 7-3 Bay) had a tough night from the field, hitting just 12 of 46 shots (26 percent) and 5 of 21 from 3-point range. Seymour didn’t shoot well from beyond the arc, 4-for-18, but hit 14 of 20 2-point shots.
Seymour (13-2, 9-1 Bay), ranked No. 4 in Division 2 in the latest WisSports.net Coaches Poll, has won 12 of its last 13 games.
“It was a really a solid team performance, especially defensively,” Seymour coach Jon Murphy said. “You’re talking about a group of kids who get it. … They knew who the shooters were and they knew what we had to do.”
Shawano now has its two lowest point totals of the season against the stifling Seymour defense.
“They pressure us and get into us more than other teams do, and tonight we weren’t physically tough enough to do it,” Kellett said. “Other teams have done it this year as well, but we’ve been able to create some stuff off of it. Tonight, we just could never get in a good rhythm on offense.”
Shawano’s leading scorer, Zeke Gueths, who came in averaging 12.9 points per game, was held to six points and hit just two field goals. Seymour’s Alex Buchholtz, 6-foot-7, bodied up Gueths and kept him in check.
“Big Buchholtz did a phenomenal job and didn’t let Zeke push him around at all,” Kellett said. “Big Z has just got to finish a couple of those. He got frustrated early and nothing seemed to fall. But Zeke was due for a down game, he’s played so well all year.”
Shawano took a 5-2 lead, but Seymour responded with a 9-0 run to go up six. Buchholtz got a pair of layups to cap the run. Two free throws by Gueths kept Shawano close at 11-7 after one quarter. Shawano finished with only two made field goals in the period and didn’t hit a shot for the final 6 minutes, 9 seconds.
In the second, Dylan Hintz hit Shawano’s first field goal in 8 minutes, 25 seconds to make it 13-9 Seymour. Jack Lacy drained a 3-pointer with 3:28 left in the half to pull Shawano within two, 17-15.
Seymour jumped out after halftime and went on a 12-2 run as Brayden Wilinski scored 10 points in the spurt to go up 29-17. Wilinski finished with a game-high 16 points.
Shawano wanted to come out in the third quarter strong, but that’s not how it panned out.
“We talked about subtle adjustments, man-to-man, and once again our defense didn’t hurt us,” Kellett said. “But we talked about coming out strong in the third quarter and it’s been a problem all year. First possession, we weren’t matched up, and that shouldn’t happen with a seasoned-veteran team and they hit a 3 to start the second half and it was downhill after that.”
Shawano was led by Lacy’s nine points and Gueths’ six rebounds.
Kellett hopes his guys can shake off the loss quickly.
“We’ve just got to put this one behind us and keep truckin’,” Kellett said.
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