By Paul Lecker

Sports Reporter

MARSHFIELD — The Marshfield girls basketball team put the clamps down in the fourth quarter, using a 14-4 run to pull away and defeat Hudson 60-50 in the first round of the Marshfield Tiger Invitational on Friday night at Marshfield High School.

Marshfield will take on Auburndale (9-1) in the championship game of the tournament at 4:30 p.m. Saturday. Auburndale defeated Wausau Newman Catholic 45-36 in the other semifinal on Friday night. Newman and Hudson will play in the third-place game at 2:45 p.m.

The game was tight through the first three quarters with the score tied 42-42 heading into the fourth.

Caitlin Michaelis hit a 3-pointer to give the Tigers the lead early in the quarter. After a basket by Hudson, Marshfield started to ratchet up its defense.

Hudson did not score for the next 5 minutes, committing three turnovers and missing five-straight shots as the Tigers built an eight-point lead.

Michaelis made another basket and converted a conventional three-point play, and Ellie Kummer added a layup to give the Tigers a 52-44 lead.

Marshfield (8-1) finished the game by making eight-straight free throws over the final 90 seconds to ice the victory.

Michaelis scored 12 of her game-high 24 points in the fourth quarter.

“It was a tough, hard-fought basketball game,” Marshfield coach Heidi Michaelis said. “I thought we played pretty efficiently and pretty well. Anytime you have to deal with that size and decent guards, it’s always going to be a good matchup. I thought they were a very good team, and they came and played us tough. It’s a good win for us.”

Lexi Jonas made four 3-pointers in the first half for the Raiders (4-3) as they kept the game close.

Michaelis made a 3-pointer, and Makayla Scheuer made a basket at the buzzer to give Marshfield at 17-14 lead at the end of the first quarter.

The lead changed hands three times in the second quarter, but again it was Scheuer hitting a late basket to put the Tigers up 28-27 at halftime.

Marshfield never trailed in the third quarter, building a five-point lead on a Scheuer 3-pointer.

Hudson rallied to tie the game at 42-42 as Jordan Huber made a 3-pointer in the final seconds of the third.

Marshfield finished strong, holding Jonas to two points in the second half and Hudson to 8 of 22 overall.

“We knew their inside was definitely what we had to watch for,” Heidi Michaelis said. “Anytime someone has five 3s for the season and hits four on you in 10 minutes, you have to do something. I thought our kids responded. We talked about it at halftime, and they did a better job of knowing where she was all the time.”

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

Tigers 60, Raiders 50

Hudson 14 13 15 8 – 50

Marshfield 17 11 14 18 – 60

HUDSON (50): Jordan Huber 2-5 0-0 5, Maggie Koehler 0-2 0-0 0, Kaylyn Jenkins 5-7 2-3 12, Anna Paquette 1-3 1-1 3, Gillian Boily 0-0 0-0 0, Christie Carli 3-8 2-2 8, Lexi Jonas 5-14 0-0 14, Ashley Juza 3-9 2-2 8, Kylee Christiansen 0-0 0-2 0. FG: 19-48. FT: 7-10. 3-pointers: 5-16 (Jonas 4-10, Huber 1-2, Paquette 0-2, Juza 0-2). Rebounds: 30 (Jenkins 6). Turnovers: 11. Fouls: 17. Fouled out: none. Record: 4-3.

MARSHFIELD (60): Makayla Scheuer 3-10 4-4 11, Caitlin Michaelis 7-15 7-9 24, Natalie Zuelke 0-0 0-1 0, Maddie Nikolai 0-2 0-0 0, Martha Kupfer 0-0 0-0 0, Ellie Kummer 4-6 4-4 13, Ema Fehrenbach 4-9 1-1 9, Hannah Meverden 1-2 1-2 3. FG: 19-44. FT: 17-21. 3-pointers: 5-13 (Michaelis 3-7, Scheuer 1-4, Kummer 1-2). Rebounds: 27 (Meverden 7, Fehrenbach 7). Turnovers: 6. Fouls: 10. Fouled out: none. Record: 8-1.