By Paul Lecker

Sports Reporter

MARATHON — Marathon used a big first-quarter run to take a double-digit lead and cruised past Stratford 54-41 in a Marawood Conference South Division boys basketball game Tuesday night at Marathon High School.

The game pitted the top two teams in the Marawood South standings. With the victory, Marathon (10-0 overall, 5-0 Marawood South) opens up a two-game lead in the conference over the Tigers, Auburndale, and Wausau Newman Catholic, who are all now 3-2.

Marathon pulled out to a 14-4 lead after the first quarter. Stratford kept within 10 at the half at 27-17, but a 14-6 run by the Raiders in the third pushed their lead to 16, and the Tigers could not recover.

Jake Reif topped Stratford (7-3 overall) with 11 points.

The Tigers shot just 34 percent (13 of 38) from the field in the loss.

Zac Rihn had 14 points to lead Marathon.

Stratford’s next game is Friday at Northland Lutheran.

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

Raiders 54, Tigers 41

Stratford 4 13 6 18 – 41

Marathon 14 13 14 13 – 54

STRATFORD (41): Dawson Gebelein 1-7 6-7 8, Nick Stoflet 1-2 0-0 3, Michael Bargender 3-6 3-6 9, Ethan Nagel 1-2 0-0 3, Derrick Schmidt 0-3 0-0 0, Jake Reif 4-12 2-3 11, Jake Schmitt 3-6 0-0 7. FG: 13-38. FT: 11-16. 3-pointers: 4-13 (Stoflet 1-2, Nagel 1-2, Schmitt 1-1, Reif 1-6, Schmidt 0-2). Rebounds: 24 (Bargender 7). Record: 7-3, 3-2 Marawood South.

MARATHON (54): Alex Blume 3, Zac Rihn 14, Preston Wirkus 12, Andre Carriveau 2, Ethan Seubert 10, Ryan Gassner 2, Isaac Barber 11. Record: 10-0, 5-0 Marawood South.