By Paul Lecker

Sports Reporter

MARSHFIELD — What a difference a few days can make.

The Marshfield Columbus Catholic boys basketball team was able to move on from a 26-point loss at Auburndale earlier this week and pounded Gilman 66-29 in a Cloverbelt Conference East Division matchup on Thursday night at Columbus Catholic High School.

The Dons went out running in the first quarter, using a suffocating defense to force 16 turnovers in the opening 7 minutes. Many of the turnovers resulted in easy layups for Columbus, which made 13 of 16 shots from the field in the quarter and scored a whopping 28 points.

“Our press was effective tonight,” Columbus Catholic coach Joe Konieczny said. “We had a team that we could turn over and get some easy baskets in transition, which I think gives us more confidence shooting the ball.

“A team like Auburndale is so disciplined and has seven or eight talented seniors. Pressure doesn’t affect them as much. Tonight was a great night in that it gave us a chance to get some minutes for some players that work really hard and deserve to be rewarded.”

Leading 28-9 after one quarter, the Dons quickly put the game away in the second.

After an early Gilman basket, Columbus (3-3, 2-0 Cloverbelt Conference East Division) scored 15 points in a row in a little more than 2 minutes to open up a 43-11 advantage.

Hunter Schultz hit three 3-pointers in the run for the Dons.

Evan Nikolai had 15 points, Schultz finished with 13, and Ben Behling added 10 for the Dons. All of the trio’s points came in the first half as Columbus played with mostly reserves in the second half.

Columbus pushed the lead to 48-14 by halftime and maintained a 20-plus point lead throughout the second half.

Columbus Catholic’s next game is Tuesday at Neillsville. The game will be broadcast on WDLB-AM 1450 and wdlbwosq.com.

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

Dons 66, Pirates 29

Gilman 9 5 9 6 – 29

Columbus Catholic 28 20 8 10 – 66

GILMAN (29): Zach Sonnentag 3-6 1-2 7, James Copenhaver 4-13 1-4 10, Ethan Aldinger 0-3 0-2 0, Travis Lato 0-0 0-2 0, Emmit Sherfield 0-0 0-0 0, Chanse Rosemeyer 2-7 1-1 5, Elliot Wininger 0-2 0-0 0, Landen Tischer 0-2 0-0 0, Lane Webster 0-0 0-0 0, Tucker Schmuckal 0-1 0-0 0, Colton Schmitt 1-4 3-4 7. FG: 10-38. FT: 6-14. 3-pointers: 1-10 (Copenhaver 1-4, Sonnentag 0-1, Rosemeyer 0-3, Wininger 0-1, Tischer 0-1). Rebounds: 25 (Schmitt 6). Turnovers: 30. Fouls: 6. Fouled out: none. Record: 1-3, 0-3 Cloverbelt Conference East Division.

COLUMBUS CATHOLIC (66): Billy Young 0-1 0-0 0, Kevin Gruber 2-3 0-0 6, Christian Payant 1-1 0-0 2, Ben Behling 4-4 0-1 10, Charles Payant 1-2 0-0 2, Evan Nikolai 7-7 0-0 15, Hunter Schultz 5-7 0-0 13, Nick Malovrh 0-8 0-0 0, Matthias Gouin 1-5 0-0 3, Tyler Fuerlinger 4-6 0-1 9, Zach Drexler 0-0 0-0 0, Brett Loveland 2-5 0-0 4, Evan Hansen 0-4 0-0 0. FG: 27-53. FT: 0-2. 3-pointers: 10-31 (Schultz 3-4, Gruber 2-3, Behling 2-2, Nikolai 1-1, Fuerlinger 1-2, Gouin 1-4, Loveland 0-1, Malovrh 0-4). Rebounds: 25 (Hansen 6). Turnovers: 17. Fouls: 15. Fouled out: none. Record: 3-3, 2-0 Cloverbelt Conference East Division.