So far this season Tuesday night games have all been winners, but every Friday night has followed with a loss
BY TINA L. SCOTT
EDITOR
Mosinee
In their second game of the season, the Merrill Bluejays played host to the Mosinee Indians in a challenging Friday night game on Dec. 1, 2023. Despite their home-court advantage, Mosinee’s experience gave them the upper hand by the end of this one and Mosinee came away the winner.
Merrill started out the early leader in the game and there was some good back and forth, but then Mosinee pulled away from Merrill, putting up basket after basket in the first half to lead by some 30 points by the halftime buzzer.
In the end, both teams put up significant points, with Merrill trying to catch up in the second half and making some baskets, but Mosinee outdistanced them on the leader board at every turn, and the Bluejays just couldn’t catch up. In the end, the Indians beat the Bluejays by 35 points. That one stung.
Box Score
Mosinee 88 @ Merrill 53
Northland Pines
Merrill’s home game against Northland Pines on Dec. 5 was an exciting comeback for the Varsity Boys on their home court. By the halftime buzzer, Merrill was up by 32 points with the score at 45-13, and in the second half Merrill brought it home for a second Merrill win for the season.
“After a rough game against Mosinee, we needed a good bounce back game,” Merrill Varsity Boys Basketball Head Coach Troy Pieper said. “I told the guys after the Mosinee game, this loss doesn’t define you or us as a team. What defines you is how you respond to adversity and a defeat like this, and I’m very proud of how the guys responded. I learned a lot about this group tonight.”
“We came out with great energy from the start. We never let Pines get settled the entire first half,” he said. “We’ve been talking about starting fast and make teams feel uncomfortable from the start, and we did just that.”
“Pines is a young team, but they do have some talent, just need to gain more experience, and I wanted to make sure the guys understood that. This team has basketball skill, just not Varsity experience, so the longer we let them stick around, the more confident they will get. The guys took that to heart,” Pieper said. “We didn’t let them gain any confidence or stick around for long; we started the game on a 15-0 run and didn’t look back.”
“Our defense in the first half was spot on,” he said. “Only allowing 13 points in a half against anyone is an awesome thing, and we converted off the turnovers we forced, so we were getting confidence on offense by creating easy baskets with our defense. Up 45-13 at the half was a good feeling after the tough first half we had against Mosinee.”
Top scorers for Merrill were Carter Baade and Sam Reimann with 25 minutes of game play each, and they were fast-paced minutes when they were on the court.
“Carter Baade (20 pts, 8/11 FG, 4/5 3FG, 4 reb, 3 stl) was lights out tonight,” Pieper said. “Scoring 20 points on just 11 shot attempts is very impressive. When he gets rolling like that, it’s a joy to watch. He was great all night.”
“Sam Reimann (13 pts, 5/13 FG, 1/4 3FG, 2/3 FT, 8 reb, 4 ast, 2 stl) filled up the stat sheet again,” Pieper said. “He’s probably been our most consistent stat stuffer this year.”
Tyson Ott (11 pts, 4/6 FG, 2/4 3FG, 1/5 FT, 3 reb, 1 ast, 2 stl) was the next highest scorer, making an impression with his 17 minutes on the court.
“Freshman Tyson Ott had his best game of his very young career, scoring 11 points and shooting 4-6 from the field,” Pieper said. He was aggressive all night, and as a young player, he will have some ups and downs in the long season, but tonight was a night that will grow his confidence. He was very solid tonight.”
Box Score
Northland Pines 39 @ Merrill 71
Wausau West
The Friday, Dec. 8, home game against Wausau West had Merrill struggling to keep pace and ultimately resulted in a loss. Coming off the Tuesday night win, it was a tough pill to swallow, but the Merrill Boys were up against a more experienced Varsity team with West. At halftime, West was in the lead 29-25, but by the final buzzer, their lead had extended to 11 points for the win.
“Tonight was a frustrating loss,” Pieper said. “In a lot of aspects, we played very well, but in a few key spots, we didn’t, and the glaring stat that was a big difference in the game was free throw shooting. We shot just 3-11 from the line compared to West going 12-13.”
“We knew this would be a good matchup and it was,” he said. “They got out to a 10-point lead in the first half; we chipped away to get it within 4 at half. I felt good going into the half and we came out solid in the second half, as well. We tied it up at 36 and went on a 7-minute drought after that. To our credit, our defense did keep us still in the game, as we only allowed 8 points during that stretch; however, we just couldn’t find another big run of our own down the stretch.”
“Congrats to West on the win and kudos to their defense, as they played very well on that end all night,” Pieper said.
Merrill’s Sam Reimann (13 pts, 6/9 FG, 1/2 FT, 3 reb, 2 ast, 2 stl) was in for 38 minutes and racked up the points to make them matter as one of the team’s high scorers for the night, putting 13 points on the board.
EJ Weix (13 pts, 4/13 FG, 3/7 3FG, 2/6 FT, 7 reb, 1 ast, 2 stl) was next with 35 minutes of game play, also putting 13 points on the board.
Carter Baade (10 pts, 4/11 FG, 2/7 3FG, 3 reb, 4 stl) and Jacob Schmeltzer (10 pts, 5/8 FG, 0/2 3FG, 0/3 FT, 4 reb, 1 ast, 1 stl) put their respective 31 and 29 minutes of game play to good use, as well, scoring 10 points each.
“We had 4 guys in double figures–EJ Weix (13), Sam Reimann (13), Carter Baade (10), and Jacob Schmeltzer (10),” Pieper said. “However, beyond that we only had two guys score two points. Scoring was a struggle. We got good shots and didn’t turn it over a lot, but shots just didn’t fall from the field or from the free throw line.”
“It’s one of those nights,” he said. “Part credit goes to West for their defense, and part the shots just didn’t fall. It’s one of those games you look back on, and it eats at you a little, because you know it’s a game you could have won. But you can’t change the past, so all you can do is be a goldfish as Ted Lasso would say and move on and learn from it.”
“We will pick up the pieces and keep plugging away,” Pieper said. “It’s a long season, and I’m confident the guys will do their part to keep building to become the best team we can be.”
Box Score
Wausau West 61 @ Merrill 50
Lakeland Union
On Tuesday, Dec. 12, the Merrill Boys were wound up and ready to put Friday night’s defeat behind them. The game against Lakeland Union High School on Merrill’s court was intense. By the end of the first half, Lakeland was in the lead 28-17 and the Merrill Boys were trying to figure out the key to getting on top of things to turn it around. Ultimately, they did exactly that, but it wasn’t before pulling double overtime to do it, sealing the win with a solid 10 point lead, 83-73.
“[This was] another Tuesday game where we are looking to bounce back from a tough Friday loss,” Pieper said, “And again, the guys responded. “We played with good energy for the most part all night, however, we just couldn’t get a shot to fall in the first half.”
“But our defense kept battling to keep us within striking distance, and our offense fed off of the energy we started the second half with on defense,” he said. “It really got us going, and we never looked back.”
“Like the Shawano game earlier in the year, where we battled back and executed in a tight game late to pull out the win, this one was no different, double overtime.” Pieper said. “The guys didn’t flinch, just kept playing and wouldn’t give up, and in the second overtime jumped Lakeland with a 9-0 run to find a way to finish the game.”
“These types of games you can’t replicate in practice,” he said. “While we do work on all sorts of situations, you can’t truly replicate late game stuff like that, so getting those games under our belts against quality opponents will be so useful for us as the season moves on.”
“I’m not sure how many coaches five games into the season can truly say they know what their team is made of in big moments, but I can say that,” Pieper said. “I know I have guys who are confident, won’t give up, and aren’t scared of the big moment.”
Lead scorers for Merrill were Carter Baade (28 pts, 11/22 FG, 3/9 3FG, 3/3 FT, 3 reb, 6 ast, 2 stl), Jacob Schmeltzer (19 pts, 6/12 FG, 3/4 3FG, 4/6 FT, 5 reb, 6 stl), EJ Weix (10 pts, 5/11 FG, 0/3 3FG, 0/3 FT, 5 reb, 2 ast, 2 stl), and Sam Reimann (10 pts, 3/18 FG, 0/4 3FG, 4/8 FT, 10 reb, 2 ast, 2 stl), together putting 67 of the 83 points on the board.
“Carter Baade and Jacob Schmeltzer were huge for us in the second half,” Pieper said. “Carter scored 22 of his 28 in the second half, and Schmeltzer scored 17 of his 19 in the second half, and hit some big three’s down the stretch, and his energy on the defensive end was off the charts for us.”
“I thought D’Ondre Houghton’s minutes were key to us tonight,” he said. “With guys in foul trouble, he had to play very big minutes and was awesome. He does so many of the little things that go unseen, and tonight he showed he’s ready for more and more minutes.”
Another observation from the Coach: “When we lost a couple guys to fouls late in the first overtime, I thought Tyson Ott coming into that situation as a Freshman and playing again like the moment isn’t too big for him will go a long ways for him moving on in the season,” Pieper said. “He just doesn’t play like a Freshman. He just plays, and while his impact might not show in the box score, he had some big hustle plays in the second overtime that keyed our run to start the second overtime.”
Box Score
Lakeland Union 73 @ Merrill 83
Wausau East
Last Friday night, Dec. 15, the Merrill boys played at Wausau East and this one was a struggle throughout. At halftime, Wausau East already had a double-digit lead with Merrill trailing 15-27. In the second half, East added insult to injury, piling on the points and leaving Merrill in the dust to more than double Merrill’s points in the final score. East took the win 73-36.
“[It was] another slow start with our shooting,” Pieper said. “We will keep adjusting things to try and figure that out; however, tonight was more us not executing in the first half. We got caught up into their game and how they want to play, rather than settling in and just worrying about what we need to do.”
EJ Weix was the top Merrill scorer with 10 points, followed by Sam Reimann with 9 and Jacob Schmeltzer with 6. Overall, Merrill had a rough night, making just 40.0% of their field goal and free throw attempts.
“We also had way too much foul trouble,” he said. The team racked up 25 fouls this game. “We need to learn quicker how the ref’s are going to call the game and adjust sooner. It’s tough sometimes when our last two games the ref’s allowed us to play and then it was very much the opposite tonight, but that’s my job and the players job to adjust to the way it’s being called.”
“Tonight just snowballed in the second half,” Pieper said. “We just never settled in. We played hard, I think, for the most part, but we didn’t execute well and for sure got too frustrated and allowed the opponent to get to us. And we know better than that, but it was one of those nights that things out of our control affected us more than we can allow it to. We will learn from it and move on.”
Box Score
Merrill 36 @ Wausau East 73
Final game before Christmas break is in Merrill tonight
“We have one more game before the break, and I expect the guys to come out and play hard Thursday against Rhinelander and get the taste from tonight out of our mouth,” he said. “All we can do is learn and move forward. There is no going back, there is no changing the outcome from tonight. We are looking to get over .500 before the break against a good Rhinelander team.”
It was another tough break for the Bluejays, but the team is hoping for some Thursday-night redemption at tonight’s Dec. 21 game against Rhinelander. It’s a home game in the Merrill High School Field House, so come on out and give them some hometown energy to bolster their spirits and get them pumped up for a win.