By Hub City Times staff

MARSHFIELD – The Columbus Catholic boys and girls teams went 1-1 last week in high school basketball action.

The Columbus Dons boys basketball team did something on Jan. 8 it had not done since last March – took a loss. The Dons got beat at Marathon 72-60, despite 23 points and 16 rebounds by Bryce Fuerlinger, 16 points from Noah Taylor, and 10 points by Jarred Mandel.

The Dons trailed by 19 at halftime, but used a 37-30 run to try making a comeback in the second half. Marathon had four players in double figures, led by freshman Jaden Koeller with 18 points off the bench, including 16 in the first half.

“We played a very good team, and we didn’t play them very well,” Columbus Coach Joe Konieczny said coming off the tough road loss. “I thought that we were very poor offensively the first half and the beginning of the second half. We started to play more full-court with about 9:00 left in the game, and got it down to single digits and had some chances to get even closer; however, it was too little too late.

On top of that, they played extremely well. They shot the ball extremely well, and they played harder than we did. Watching the film, they weren’t the same team we had seen on film prior to that in some of their other games. They were very physical, and a good non-conference game for us. In reflecting on it, it’s good for us that we got to see some things on film that showed us what we need to work on; that maybe some of the habits we’ve created against lesser opponents isn’t going to work against a team like that, so hopefully we handle it in the right way and improve as a group.”

But Konieczny said the sky is not falling just yet. “They’ve been asked a lot ‘What happened? You lost.’ It’s unfortunate that it seems like such a big deal, but we have to learn from it and move on, and make it something that benefits us long-term.”

The Dons responded to the Jan. 8 loss with a win at home on Jan. 10, beating Loyal 78-55. The Greyhounds jumped out to an early 10-7 lead as Columbus started cold – missing seven of their first ten shots. But, the Dons used a big run to build a 46-25 halftime lead. Taylor had a big night for Columbus Catholic, scoring 26 points. Mandel added 17, and Ethan Meece had 14. Kole Bogdonovich led Loyal with 19 points. Trevyn Wilke had 11.

The win helped the Dons improve to 11-1, and a perfect 7-0 in Eastern Cloverbelt Conference play. Loyal dropped to 3-8 overall. The win was the fourth straight for Columbus over Loyal. The Dons are now 41-7 versus Loyal dating back to 1966. Columbus plays at Colby on Jan. 18.

The Columbus girls also went 1-1 last week. The Dons lost to Colby on Jan. 8 by a final score of 52-35. The Dons had just 12 points in the first half. Addie Baierl led Columbus with nine points. Hailey Roehl added eight points. Ashley Streveler led Colby with 16 points. Hailey Voelker had 11 for the Hornets, who remain unbeaten on the season, after a Jan. 11 win over Owen-Withee.

Columbus came back with a nice win over Spencer on Jan. 11, beating the Rockets 63-18 at Columbus Catholic High School in Marshfield. The Rockets connected on just six shots from the floor during the game. The Dons built a 34-8 halftime lead. Columbus was led by Addie Baierl with 17. The Dons improved to 8-6 with the win. Columbus plays at Granton on Jan. 17.