By Paul Lecker

Sports Reporter

MARSHFIELD — The Marshfield Columbus Catholic boys basketball team survived a big scare in its playoff opener Tuesday night.

The Dons outscored Abbotsford 11-1 in overtime to knock off the Falcons 58-48 in a WIAA Division 5 regional quarterfinal at Columbus Catholic High School.

Abbotsford led 17-12 after the first quarter before the Dons exploded with a 16-8 second quarter to take a 28-25 lead.

The Falcons (4-19) pulled even in the fourth quarter, but Columbus dominated the overtime period to pull out the win.

Columbus (15-8) will host Pittsville (11-12) in a regional semifinal at 7 p.m. Friday. The game will be broadcast on WOSQ-FM 92.3 and wdlbwosq.com. Pittsville beat Columbus 34-31 way back on Nov. 28 in the Wisconsin Rapids Assumption Cranberry Classic.

Hunter Schultz scored 14 points, and four others had at least seven for the Dons.

Jacob Lavin topped Abbotsford with 19 points.

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

Dons 58, Falcons 48 (OT)

Abbotsford 17 8 13 9 1 – 48

Columbus Catholic 12 16 13 6 11 – 58

ABBOTSFORD (48): Stewart Braun 0, Jacob Lavin 19, Dillon Novak 0, Garrett Rau 5, Ethan Kramas 16, Treven Gorst 8. Record: 4-19.

COLUMBUS CATHOLIC (58): Billy Young 4, Christian Payant 7, Ben Behling 8, Ryan Dieringer 7, Evan Nikolai 5, Hunter Schultz 14, Matthias Gouin 0, Tyler Fuerlinger 4, Brett Loveland 9. Record: 15-8.