By Paul Lecker

Sports Reporter

MARSHFIELD — The Marshfield Columbus Catholic boys basketball team had to win Tuesday to keep its slim hopes of sharing a Cloverbelt Conference East Division title alive, and two big scoring runs in the second quarter proved to be enough.

Ryan Dieringer hit three 3-pointers in the opening 2:40 of the second quarter, and the Dons scored the final five points of the period to build a lead and cruised to a 74-54 victory over Greenwood on Tuesday night at Columbus Catholic High School.

Evan Nikolai was 10 of 12 from the field and finished with a game-high 26 points to lead Columbus Catholic, which improves to 12-7 overall and 11-3 in the Cloverbelt East.

The Dons and Neillsville are tied for second place in the conference, two games behind Spencer with two games remaining. Columbus Catholic finishes its Cloverbelt East schedule with games at Owen-Withee on Friday and at Spencer on Monday.

“We’re not focusing on that. I think it’s in the back of their minds. We’re trying to get as good as we can be come playoff time,” Columbus Catholic coach Joe Konieczny said. “It’s two weeks away, and every time we play is a chance to improve.”

Columbus Catholic started its five seniors on Senior Night and got off to an uneven start, committing seven turnovers in the first quarter, and the score was tied 8-8 at the end of the period.

Dieringer sparked the fire in the second quarter, hitting three 3-pointers. Hunter Schultz added another, and Billy Young and Schultz each scored two-point baskets as the Dons outscored Greenwood 16-4 over the quarter’s first four minutes, and they never trailed again.

After a Logan Johnson 3-pointer closed the gap to 24-20 for Greenwood, Nikolai scored three points, and Schultz scored with five seconds left to put Columbus on top 29-20 at halftime.

The Dons continued their offensive efficiency in the third quarter, making nine of 17 field goal attempts. A 16-9 run over the first five minutes extended their lead to 45-29 and Greenwood got no closer than 12 the rest of the way.

Schultz and Tyler Fuerlinger each added 12 points for Columbus.

“It’s almost like we played without thinking tonight, reacting and taking what the defense gave us,” Konieczny said. “When we play unselfishly, we’re a pretty good team.

“The first time we played them we noticed we had a lot of mismatches on the perimeter with Hunter, Evan, and Tyler. We knew all three of them could attack, and Ryan Dieringer hitting some early 3s kind of opened it up more for them because they were protecting against the outside shot.”

Booker Bredlau scored 18 of his team-high 20 points in the second half for Greenwood (6-11, 5-9 Cloverbelt East).

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

Dons 74, Indians 54

Greenwood 8 12 15 19 – 54

Columbus Catholic 8 21 22 23 – 74

GREENWOOD (54): Logan Johnson 5-13 0-0 12, Decker Lindner 1-1 0-0 2, Walker Wuethrich 0-1 0-0 0, Delten Schmitz 1-7 1-2 3, Dylan North 1-1 0-0 2, Trevor Serocki 0-0 0-0 0, Dane Toburen 3-11 5-7 11, Booker Bredlau 6-16 7-9 20, Sam Revier 2-4 0-0 4, Zachary Zimbauer 0-0 0-0 0, Cole Lucas 0-0 0-0 0, Devin Toburen 0-1 0-0 0. FG: 19-53. FT: 13-18. 3-pointers: 3-17 (Johnson 2-8, Bredlau 1-2, Wuethrich 0-1, Revier 0-1, De. Toburen 0-1, Schmitz 0-4). Rebounds: 37 (Da. Toburen 11). Turnovers: 21. Fouls: 19. Fouled out: Johnson. Record: 6-11, 5-9 Cloverbelt Conference East Division.

COLUMBUS CATHOLIC (74): Billy Young 1-3 0-0 2, Kevin Gruber 0-2 0-0 0, Ryan Dieringer 3-3 0-0 9, Ben Behling 0-1 0-0 0, Charles Payant 0-0 0-0 0, Christian Payant 2-6 0-2 5, Evan Nikolai 10-12 5-8 26, Hunter Schultz 5-12 1-2 12, Nick Malovrh 0-0 0-0 0, Matthias Gouin 0-5 0-0 0, Tyler Fuerlinger 4-9 4-4 12, Zach Drexler 1-2 0-0 2, Brett Loveland 0-4 2-2 2, Evan Hansen 2-3 0-0 4. FG: 28-62. FT: 12-18. 3-pointers: 6-20 (Dieringer 3-3, Chr. Payant 1-2, Schutlz 1-4, Nikolai 1-1, Gruber 0-2, Behling 0-1, Fuerlinger 0-2, Loveland 0-1, Gouin 0-4). Rebounds: 30 (Loveland 6). Turnovers: 12. Fouls: 15. Fouled out: none. Record: 12-7, 11-3 Cloverbelt Conference East Division.