By Hub City Times staff

MARSHFIELD – The Marshfield Tigers boys’ basketball team will head into the WIAA playoffs as a No. 6 seed, after two key losses to teams in their Division 1 sectional.

Even before their Wisconsin Valley Conference (WVC) championship game with Stevens Point Feb. 21, the Tigers earned the sixth seed in their bracket, and are scheduled to face No. 11 Oshkosh-West on March 1 in a D-1 regional semifinal at Marshfield High School, following a first-round bye. The pairings were set on Feb. 17; one day after the Tigers played their third game in six days – a thrilling 63-58 win over Eau Claire-Memorial at Marshfield High School. The win ended a two-game losing streak, as the Tigers scored their second win of the season over Memorial.

Marshfield jumped out to a 35-27 halftime lead, and grew that lead to 17 in the second half, but Eau Claire embarked on a 25-5 run and grabbed a late lead. The Tigers stopped the comeback attempt, scoring the final eight points of the game after blowing a 17-point advantage.

Brant Bohman and Preston Wagner each scored 14 points to lead Marshfield. Wagner was six-for-seven from the free throw line. The win came one day after the Tigers lost their second-straight game – a 58-39 loss at Chippewa Falls on Feb. 15. The Tigers shot just 25 percent from beyond the arch, converting just seven of 27 three-point attempts. Nobody scored in double figures for the Tigers, who were led by Bohman with eight and Addison Hill with seven.

As a team, Marshfield shot just 28 percent from the floor, going 15-for-53 on the day.

That loss followed a 75-65 loss to Eau Claire-North on Feb. 11 at Marshfield High School – a loss that ended a 10-game Tiger win streak. The Tigers trailed by just three at halftime, but North used a 41-34 second half run to put the game away. Marshfield was led by Brant Bohman’s 21 points. Isaac Meverden added 18 and Anthony Posteluk scored 13. The Tigers were just 7-of-20 from 3-point range and shot only four free throws in the game.

Marshfield is now 14-6 overall, and 9-2 in the Wisconsin Valley Conference. A win on Feb. 21 over Stevens Point could secure Marshfield’s first outright conference championship in school history, and end Point’s stranglehold on the conference. The Panthers have won the last six WVC titles. The Tigers shared the conference title with Wausau-West in 1991-92 and again in the 2009-10 season.