By Hub City Times staff

STRATFORD – The Stratford Tigers boys basketball team rolled into the postseason with a perfect 21-0 record after wins on Feb. 24 and 27.

In a Feb. 24 makeup game with Edgar which had been postponed from Dec. 3, the Tigers used a 33-9 second-half run to beat the Wildcats 60-37, for head coach, Curt Schmidt.

“The kids did a nice job of playing good defense”, Schmidt said after the game. “I thought we played pretty good ‘man’. We got in a little foul trouble, but then our 1-3-1 (zone defense) was pretty decent. But, we mainly did ‘man’ and I thought the guys had their hands fairly active. Offensively, we moved better in the second half. The ball moved from side-topside better. There was better movement. Everything was a little better. Timing was goofy right before the end of the first half. That’s what you get sometimes when you run motion offense, where you read things, not just a pattern offense. I thought we were more fundamental in the second half. I thought we took care of the ball better. I thought we made better decisions.”

Ben Barten led Stratford with 19 points. Barten was coming off a 15-point performance at Auburndale on Feb. 21 in which he surpassed 1,000 points for his Tiger career, joining teammate Vaughn Breit as the only Stratford boys basketball players to accomplish the feat in school history. Breit currently has 1,148 points heading into the postseason after scoring 14 in a win at Wisconsin Rapids Assumption Feb. 27, when the Tigers beat the Royals 63-23 in their regular-season finale.

The Tigers are now 45-1 since the start of last season. They have a first-round bye in the Division 4 playoffs, and will host a regional semifinal March 6 at Stratford High School. The Tigers competed in Division 3 last season.