A pair of wins has the Bluejays rebounding
TINA L. SCOTT
EDITOR
On Friday, Feb. 4, 2022, the Merrill Boys Basketball Team hosted the Wisconsin Rapids Lincoln High School Boys Basketball Team and played for a hometown crowd in the Merrill High School Field House.
“The energy in the gym was off the charts,” said Merrill Boys Basketball Head Coach Troy Pieper. “A lot of people came out for our inaugural Hall of Fame Night. It was pretty cool to see such a great turnout.”
[As a part of the evening’s line-up, the Merrill Basketball Program inducted former Merrill Basketball players and coaches into the Merrill Basketball Hall of Fame. See article in next week’s paper.]
The Bluejays came away with a great win, scoring 70 points vs. Wisconsin Rapids’ 60 points.
“However, I think the guys may have been feeding off that energy a little too much,” Pieper said. “As we never really settled in and executed against their zone to start. We were settling for 3’s when there were opportunities to score inside. We made a couple minor adjustments and talked about it at halftime and did a much better job executing in the second half.”
“Our defense was pretty good for the most part all night,” he said. “We held them to just 21 first half points, and Rapids was hitting some really tough shots just to get those 21 points.”
“Same as Tuesday, we got some stops early in the second half and a couple easy buckets, and once we saw the ball go in, our outside shots started to fall a little more, as well. The focus this week in practice will be to attack a little more to start and get a few easy ones to go, so we can get off to a better first half start moving forward. In both games this past week, we scored 46 and 48 points in the second half. We need to find some consistency and put up a better output in the first half, too.”
This was Bailey Turenne’s (8 FG, 1 3pt, 7 FT, 7 ast, 4 stl) second game back from injury. “And he looked like the regular Bailey,” Pieper said. “While he didn’t shoot it as well as he’d probably like, he was a beast on the boards again, finishing with 24 points, 19 rebounds, and 7 assists. He was doing a great job of creating open looks for the guys all night, and in the second half when the outside shot was falling, he started taking over inside a little bit.”
“Bradyn Pieper (5 FG, 3 3pt, 3 ast, 2 stl) and Troy Mootz (4 FG, 2 3pt, 2 FT, 3 ast, 1 stl) have really settled into their roles as the season has moved on, and they have been very consistent scorers for us all year for the most part. They both had very solid nights.” Bradyn scored 13 points for the game and Troy scored 12.
“I thought Carter Baade (1 FG, 1 3pt, 2 FT) had his best game yet since being moved up to Varsity,” Pieper said. “He has really adapted quickly to the speed of the game and looks really comfortable out there. While his stat line may not jump off the page, he was really good on defense tonight, and the four rebounds is pretty impressive for a guard. I just thought he gave great minutes tonight, and if that continues, he will see those minutes increase each game as we head down the stretch.”
“We have a full week of practice for the first time this season,” Pieper said looking ahead. “It’s sort of perfect timing not having a game on Tuesday this week, as it gives a full week to focus on a tough opponent on Friday as we welcome Mosinee to our gym. They are currently 18-1 and ranked in the top 10 in the state for D2.” Merrill Boys Basketball fans can cheer for the Bluejays at the game Friday night, Feb. 11. The Varsity game begins at 7:15 p.m.
Box Score:
Wisconsin Rapids 60 @ Merrill 70
The Hodags come to Merrill
On Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2022, the Rhinelander Hodags came to play the Merrill Bluejays, giving the Merrill Boys Varsity Basketball Team the home-court advantage, and it paid off. The Bluejays scored a much-needed win, with 75 points against the Hodays’ 68.
“Trailing again at halftime (27-35) was a bit frustrating,” Pieper said. “It’s sort of been an unfortunate trend this year.
However, at the break, I challenged the guys a little bit, and we made a couple minor adjustments on how we were going to handle their best player in the second half, and the guys – especially Cayden Diels (2 FG, 1 3 pt, 2 FT, 1 ast, 3 stl) who had the responsibility of guarding their best player – executed great in the second half. Our defense in the second half led us tonight. It was nice to see us get back to bringing it at a high level on the defensive side.”
“Cayden Diels was fantastic in the second half. He hounded #2 the entire second half and got him pretty frustrated.
Rhinelander plays through #2, as he is such a skilled guard who creates open shots for everyone on their team. Once Cayden locked in and took him out of it for much of the second half, they really struggled to get anything going offensively.”
“Like much of the year, when our defense is playing at a high level, it fuels our offense, and tonight was much of the same,” Pieper said. “We scored 48 in the second half, and we really didn’t change much on offense; we just let the energy of our defense carry over to the offensive side of things.”
“Bailey Turenne (8 FG, 3 3pt, 7 FT, 6 ast, 3 stl) was back from his foot injury, and that was a big boost for us, as well,” he said. “I think he was sort of testing things out in the first half to make sure the foot was for sure good, and then in the second half, it was the Bailey we have all had the pleasure to watch all season. He was fantastic, like always – another double double with 26 points and 10 rebounds.”
“Troy Mootz (5 FG, 1 3pt, 2 FT, 1 ast, 1 stl) was very efficient tonight. Scoring 13 points on just 8 shots is a very efficient night,” Pieper said. “When he has it going like that, I’d like him to try to be a little more aggressive, but he didn’t force anything and really did a nice job of letting the game come to him.”
“Tyson Glisch (3 FG, 2 3pt, 2 FT) gave some really solid minutes off the bench, too,” he said. “He hit a couple big three’s and was solid all night.”
Brayden Pieper (3 FG, 2 3pt, 3 FT, 3 ast, 1 stl) was the third highest scorer of the night, with 11 points.
“We have really put an even bigger emphasis the last few practices on defense and taking care of the ball,” Pieper said. “Both have let us down during the little losing streak. Tonight we played great defense in the second half, and we took care of the ball all night. We had just 10 turnovers on the night, and not many of those were live ball breakout turnovers.”
Box Score:
Rhinelander 68 @ Merrill 75