By Paul Lecker

Sports Reporter

AUBURNDALE — Auburndale shot a crisp 54 percent from the field, and Matt Nikolay poured in 22 points and had six rebounds as the Apaches ended a short two-game skid with a 63-51 nonconference victory over Athens on Thursday night at Auburndale High School.

Nikolay made 9 of 10 free throws and 6 of 12 shots from the field to finish with 22 points. Alex Marth added 13 points for the Apaches, and Jake Lewis had a double-double with 11 points and 11 assists.

Auburndale trailed 17-15 after one quarter before easing past the Bluejays (3-8). The Apaches (8-4) outscored Athens by four in the second quarter and five in both the third and fourth periods.

Collin Ellenbecker had 15 points to top Athens.

Auburndale hosts Stratford on Tuesday. The game will be broadcast on WOSQ-FM 92.3 and wdlbwosq.com.

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

Apaches 63, Bluejays 51

Athens 17 9 10 15 – 51

Auburndale 15 13 15 20 – 63

ATHENS (51): Collin Ellenbecker 5 2-4 15, Lane Nichols 0 0-0 0, Austin Schreiner 5 0-0 11, Lane Tessmer 3 1-1 8, Justin Kelly 1 0-0 2, Aaron Wickman 4 1-2 9, Tony Thurs 2 0-0 6. FG: 20. FT: 4-7. 3-pointers: 7 (Ellenbecker 3, Thurs 2, Tessmer 1, Schreiner 1). Fouls: 13. Fouled out: none. Record: 3-8.

AUBURNDALE (63): Jake Lewis 5-7 0-2 11, Matt Nikolay 6-12 9-10 22, Bryan Gehrke 0-0 0-1 0, Cooper Krings 1-2 0-0 3, Tyler Weber 1-6 0-0 2, Alex Marth 6-10 1-2 13, Matt Lang 2-2 0-0 4, Dylan Peplinski 0-1 0-0 0, Josh VanSchoick 4-6 0-0 8. FG: 25-46. FT: 10-15. 3-pointers: 3-10 (Krings 1-1, Lewis 1-3, Nikolay 1-5, Weber 0-1). Rebounds: 26 (Nikolay 6). Assists: 18 (Lewis 11). Record: 8-4.