Marshfield over Baraboo

Baraboo passed their first big test taking down Racine Park in fairly convincing fashion and met their second big challenge facing Marshfield on Friday night. Marshfield was a bigger challenge in more ways then one. Marshfield is a team with lots of seniors and they are ranked in the top 15 in the state, while Park lost a lot from last years team and are in a bit of a rebuilding year. The second way is the fact they Marshfield has a very tall team overall and Baraboo is just not that tall of a team.

Marshfield has a starting lineup of 6'2, 6'3, 6'5, 6'9, 7'0, and then had a 6'6 guy that played off the bench. Baraboo on the other hand start a 6'7 guy and a 6'8 player that plays very minimum minutes, otherwise everyone else on the team is 6'3 or under with the except of 6'4 junior Sean McGann who prefers to play on the perimeter. Early on in the game it was very evident that Marshfield height was a huge problem for Baraboo as Marshfield got at least two attempts at the hoop every time down the court and really looked to feed the post players, which they probably focus on due to their size. Baraboo seemed very frustrated on the offensive end due to the fact that every shot they took, they were shooting over taller defenders who always had a hand up or were tipping the ball. At the end of the first quarter Marshfield was up 15-9 and that was the closes Baraboo got. Midway through the first quarter Marshfield went to a 1-3-1 zone defense and this absolutely killed Baraboo on the offensive end. Baraboo only mustered eight points in the second quarter and were down 28-17 at the half. Marshfield's top offensive played was 6'9 senior Cale Zuiker, who is a D1 recruit, and Baraboo choose to guard him with 5'11 senior Josh Statz. Statz did the best he could considering the 10 inch height advantage but, Zuiker was able to shoot right over the top of Statz and could score in the post when he choose to.

The third quarter was Baraboo's biggest offensive quarter as this was the only quarter they reached double digits and actually scored 10 for the quarter. Statz was able to get something going using his speed to get around the bigger Marshfield defenders and score, slicing through the Marshfield D. Again in the third quarter Marshfield went to the zone defense and it basically shut Baraboo down for the remainder of the third quarter and into the fourth. Baraboo only managed three points in the final quarter, with two of the points coming on free throws in garbage minutes when the benches had been cleared. Marshfield continued pounding the ball into the post and found their 7'0 senior Jon Bauer for some easy buckets. In the end Marshfield methodically pulled away from Baraboo to get the 49-30 win.

Top Players
Cale Zuiker 6'9 senior Marshfield- Moves very well for a kid his size and plays more like a guard. Can shoot over smaller defenders from the outside or inside.
Jon Bauer 7'0 senior Marshfield- Fights for position very well and gives his teammates a nice target. Alittle raw on the offensive end and needs to work on the finesse part of his game.
Elliot Ashbeck 6'3 junior Marshfield- Solid point guard that is very strong with the ball in his hand. Rebounds well and is that glue guy that holds things together.
Mark Kowalke 6'7 senior Baraboo- Battled all night against much bigger players and had a couple nice blocks on those bigger players.
Josh Statz 5'11 senior Baraboo- Did a nice job guarding the 6'9 Zuiker all night and used his quickness to score in the lane.

Box Score
Marshfield 49- Zuiker 11 Dustin Thumann 10 Bauer 9 Ian Padron 8 Ashbeck 7 Brandon Brown 2 Adams Voss 2 Brody Erickson 0 Sean Koran 0 Chris Stemen 0 Alex Arendt 0
Baraboo 30- Statz 10 Kowalke 9 Tyler Fish 5 McGann 4 Jesse Klink 1 Zach Trower 1 Mike Weinke 0 Emerson Halbach 0 Claeb Leonhardt 0 Joe Becraft 0 Erik Anderson 0 Ryan Vorndran 0 Corbin Lebo 0

After watching this game I was fairly impressed with Marshfield. They run the pick and roll very well and really using their strength of height by looking to the post and run their offense from the inside out. Wouldn't be surprised to see them make a state run coming out of the North. They were without a returning starter from last year due to injury. Baraboo shouldn't be too upset about this game, height really was the reason they struggled so much and they probably won't see anyone in D2 that will have this type of height. Baraboo will be a team to reckon with come playoff time.