Apaches hang in conference title race with home win

By Paul Lecker

Sports Reporter

AUBURNDALE — The Auburndale girls basketball team grabbed a must-win in its Marawood Conference South Division title chase by beating Wisconsin Rapids Assumption 37-34 on Thursday night at Auburndale High School.

Auburndale improves to 13-2 overall and 7-2 in the Marawood South. Assumption drops to 12-3 and 8-2 in the conference. Marathon leads the standings with an 8-1 record, one-half game ahead of Assumption and a full game in front of Auburndale. Auburndale hosts Marathon on Feb. 5.

Taylor Gotz scored 16 points and grabbed nine rebounds, and Paiton Richardson had 12 points and eight rebounds for Auburndale.

The Apaches survived despite making just 11 of 22 free throws. Assumption was even worse, making only 7 of its 16 free throw attempts.

Macie Zurfluth had 17 points for the Royals.

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

Apaches 37, Royals 34

Assumption 18 16 – 34

Auburndale 21 16 – 37

ASSUMPTION (34): Macyn Krings 1-7 0-0 2, Gracie Wenders 0-2 0-2 0, Autumn Linzmeier 2-9 0-1 4, Macie Zurfluth 5-14 6-11 17, Gena Grundhoffer 2-12 1-2 7, Joeclyn Frisch 0-1 0-0 0, Olivia Skibba 2-4 0-0 4. FG: 12-49. FT: 7-16. 3-pointers: 3-20 (Grundhoffer 2-10, Zurfluth 1-4, Linzmeier 0-1, Krings 0-5). Rebounds: 25 (Linzmeier 5, Zurfluth 5, Grundhoffer 5). Record: 12-3, 8-2 Marawood South.

AUBURNDALE (37): Mackenzie Raab 0-1 0-0 0, Brooke Anderson 0-1 1-2 1, Allison Linzmeier 0-1 1-2 1, Rachael Bolder 1-2 1-3 3, Sylviann Momont 2-3 0-3 4, Paiton Richardson 5-10 2-2 12, Taylor Gotz 5-15 6-10 16. FG: 13-33. FT: 11-22. 3-pointers: 0-0. Rebounds: 30 (Gotz 9). Record: 13-2, 7-2 Marawood South.