Apaches move on to regional semifinal Friday at Crivitz

By Steve Pilz

AUBURNDALE — Winners of its last six games, the Auburndale boys basketball team came into its first WIAA tournament game riding high and looking for No. 7.

It did not take the sixth-seeded Apaches long to get going, running out to a 13-0 after five minutes and cruising to an 84-50 win over No. 11 seed Crandon in a WIAA Division 4 regional quarterfinal Tuesday at Auburndale High School.

The win puts the Apaches (16-7) up against Crivitz (16-7), the No. 3 seed on their side of the Division 4 bracket, in a regional semifinal at 7 p.m. Friday at Crivitz High School.

Crandon turned the ball over five of the first six times it possessed it, lending Auburndale an early lead. Once they did score at the 12:08 mark, the Cardinals made eight of their next 15 shots to crawl within eight.

Auburndale followed with a run of its own to end the half.

“I thought our run at the end of the first (18-3) was a real key,” Auburndale coach Chad Weinfurter said. ”I thought we had a better defensive unit in right then, and we were able to get some turnovers and feed it into our offense.”

Auburndale hit its last six shots of the half to lead 41-18 at the break.

Crandon went on a 9-1 run to start the second half, but it was just a drop in the bucket as the Apaches hit seven-straight shots at one point, including two 3s by Caleb Weinfurter. He made four 3-pointers in total and finished with 14 points. Auburndale hit 10 of 11 shots at one stretch and shot 62 percent (30-for-51) for the game. Collin Hawkins led the way with 19 points, and Colton Wright also reached double digits with 12.

The Apaches had just eight turnovers.

“Having less than 10 turnovers, which is our goal, is key for us, especially when we put up 84 points,” Chad Weinfurter said. ‘I’m constantly preaching to move the ball. We were balanced tonight in our scoring and play. We’re tougher to defend that way.

“Crivitz is very balanced as well. They are very aggressive and attack the rim. They get to the line a ton and get after it offensively. We are going to have to play better defense Friday night if we want to come out of there with a win.”

Apaches 84, Cardinals 50

Crandon 18 32 – 50

Auburndale 41 43 – 84

CRANDON (50): Deion Okrasinski 5, Israel Alloway 5, Donte Conley 2, Blake Weber 11, Spencer Shallock 3, Max Lkhagvasuren 10, Ty Bradley 2, Kobe Gallion 12. FG: 20-53. FT: 5-6. 3-pointers: 5-14 (Weber 3, Okrasinski 1, Schallock 1). Turnovers: 17. Record: 9-13.

AUBURNDALE (84): Cooper Weinfurter 10, Luke Olsen 4, Logan Willfahrt 4, Cason Schmutzler 6, Caleb Weinfurter 14, Collin Hawkins 19, Colten Yeske 2, Cameron Ertl 5, Cale Jacoby 8, Colton Wright 12. FG: 30-51. FT: 16-24. 3-pointers: 8-21 (Ca. Weinfurter 4, Wright 2, Co. Weinfurter 1, Willfahrt 1). Rebounds: 30 (Schmutzler 5). Turnovers: 8. Record: 16-7.