Columbus Catholic Wins Battle For ECC Top Spot
Tuesday, January 15th, 2019 -- 9:31 PM
The Marshfield Columbus Catholic Dons won a shootout over Neillsville at the Fieldhouse 96-89 on Tuesday night to take over first place in the Eastern Cloverbelt.The Dons took an early lead and never trailed the rest of the way. The inside game of Ethan Meece, Noah Taylor and Bryce Fuerlinger and the outside shooting of Jarred Mandel led Columbus Catholic in the first half as all 4 were in double figures leading the Dons to a 51-43 halftime lead. Neillsville's Hunter Hand had the "hot hand" in the first half leading the Warriors with 15 points while Alex King added 13.
The Warriors got down by as many as 15 in the second half but then started to connect from beyond the arc and got the lead down to 4 late in the game before Columbus Catholic made late free throws to hang on for the win. Neillsville's Braden Trunkel had the touch from the outside in the second half, hitting 6 three pointers and scoring 17 points.
Each team finished with 3 players over 20 points. King had a game high 26 for Neillsville, Trunkel had 23 and Hand added 21. Issac Weiers had 11 points for Neillsville. For Columbus Catholic, Meece had 25, Mandel 23 and Fuerlinger had 22 points. Taylor finished with 19 points.
Neillsville made 17 three pointers in the game while Columbus Catholic had 6. The Dons made 18 of 27 free throws while the Warriors were just 4 of 9.
Columbus Catholic improves to 12-1 overall and 8-0 in the ECC. Neillsville falls to 9-3 overall and 7-1 in the conference.
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