The Hatchets hosted Mosinee in the regular season finale on Thursday night at the THS fieldhouse, with Mosinee playing for at least a share of the GNC Title. Mosinee led Tomahawk 36-33 at the half.
The early going of the second half saw the back and forth action continue. Then Mosinee was able to go on a run, that Tomahawk couldn’t respond to. The Indians full-court run and jump defense forced Hatchet turnovers that led to easy baskets on their end of the floor.
Mosinee outscored Tomahawk 46-26 in the second half on the way to an 82-59 win and a Conference Championship (co-champs with Rhinelander).
“Mosinee is a really athletic, skilled team,” said THS coach Tim Albert. “Their pressure gave us problems in the second half, and that five minute stretch was the difference where they created turnovers that led to easy baskets.
“Defensively we just weren’t able to get enough stops in the second half, and we were able to trade baskets for a stretch, but just couldn’t string together a couple stops in a row.
Tomahawk scoring came from Justin Jarvensivu and Brandon Vecchio (17 each), Jacob Zietlow (8), Easton Phalin (7), Riley Tollison and Erik Zedler (both with 3) and Andrew Cook and Brian Vecchio (2 apiece).
Bumping the Buccaneers
The Hatchet Boys Basketball Team won their second straight game, 58-35 over Prentice on Tuesday night in non-conference action. With the win, Tomahawk improved to 8-13 overall.
Tomahawk jumped out to a 10-0 lead on Tuesday night, by really locking down Prentice on defense and executing in the half-court.
Tomahawk would conclude the first half with a 16-6 run, to lead 26-8 at the half.
In all, Prentice had 10 turnovers, many of which were due to the excellent half-court defense Tomahawk played.
In the second half, the Buccaneers were able to cut the lead to 14, at 44-30 with an 11-4 run. But the Hatchets were able to finish the game with a 14-5 run,, and seal the non-conference victory.
“This was one of our best defensive efforts of the year,” Albet said. “We held a good team in check, by stopping dribble penetration. We were really solid on the defensive end of the floor and our half-court pressure gave them problems.
“Offensively, we just continued to execute well, like we’ve done the last couple of weeks. We really run our stuff well, and we do a great job with shot selection.”
Justin Jarvensivu led the scoring with 25, followed by Easton Phalin (8), Jacob Zietlow (6), Riley Tollison, Isaac Weber and Brandon Vecchio (5), and Andrew Cook (4).
“I thought we had an up and down regular season, great start, some struggles during the middle, but then we played much better late, including four point losses to Rhinelander and Medford and the three point loss to Lakeland,” Albert said. “We are playing good basketball heading into the playoffs.”
The Hatchets will host Northland Pines in WIAA Regional Quarter Final action on Tuesday at 7 p.m.