By Paul Lecker

Sports Reporter

MARSHFIELD — The University of Wisconsin-Marshfield/Wood County men’s basketball team has taken on a new look.

Everyone on the roster is a freshman with a unique mixture of recent local high school players and a group of five players from Cleveland, Ohio.

The Marauders began their season splitting a pair of games at the UW-Fond du Lac Tournament last weekend, which included a come from behind victory over UW-Fond du Lac in their opener.

UW-Marshfield trailed by seven with a little more than 2 minutes remaining before coming back to post a 77-74 win. The Marauders lost by 30 to the UW-Fond du Lac alumni team in the championship game.

“We’re a young bunch, all freshmen coming in, not much experience when it comes right down to it,” second-year coach Patrick Meyer said. “It’s a mix-and-match right now getting personalities and ball styles to match with each other. It’s a work in progress for sure.”

Derek Shivers and Joseph Estrict, two of the players from Cleveland, led the Marauders in scoring during the tournament.

Shivers had a game-high 23 points in the opener. Estrict scored 16 points and grabbed 12 rebounds in the first game and went for 14 points and seven rebounds in the second contest.

Among the local players are Ben Grieser from Spencer, Hunter Busse from Colby, Devon Klein from Granton, and Logan Fulwiler of Loyal. Busse was a second-team pick, and Klein was an honorable mention choice on last year’s all-Cloverbelt Conference East Division team.

Meyer said he has high expectations for the Marauders.

“We’ve set a goal to win state. We want to be the best in the state,” Meyer said. “We didn’t quite play the way we wanted to play (last weekend), but we come back at it in practice. One thing about this group is they are willing to work and fix those things.”

(Hub City Times Sports Reporter Paul Lecker is also the publisher of MarshfieldAreaSports.com.)

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