Varsity Boys Basketball suffers two consecutive home losses

The Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025, Merrill Boys Varsity Basketball game was postponed due to the frigid temperatures which also closed school and activities throughout the Merrill area.

On Friday, Jan. 24, the Merrill Boys played host to the Wausau West Warriors and the Warriors walked away with the win, 54-61.
“We were a little flat for much of the game, and we couldn’t buy a basket in the first half, scoring just 17 points,” said Merrill Boys Varsity Basketball Head Coach Troy Pieper. “I thought we were getting great looks, same looks as we got vs Antigo last Saturday; however, we couldn’t get a shot to fall in the first half, and our defense was a little flat and lacking the energy we normally play with on defense.”
“Second half, though, credit to the guys. We fell down by 25 with 8:00 left and didn’t stop fighting, and might have stumbled upon a decent full court option to go with our zone defense,” he said. “We forced some turnovers and got West to play too fast, and finally saw some shots fall. We battled all the way back to within five points and had the ball, but a missed shot in that possession and some FT’s by West sort of sealed the win for them. I think if we could have added a couple minutes to the game, we might have pulled off a pretty remarkable comeback.”
“Again it’s like a broken record, but playing another very good team in West and a team that is very physical, we showed again we can compete and battle with them, but we still need to put 36 minutes of our brand of basketball together and do it at a high level in order to start seeing the positive endings in these tough matchups,” Pieper said.

“I liked how Charles Kalinowski (6 pts, 2 FG, 1 3pt, 1 FT, 2 reb, 1 stl) and Cooper Wendorf (2 pts, 1 FG, 2 ast, 1 stl) played for us in the second half off the bench,” Pieper said. “They really brought some great energy and were a key part to our comeback”.
“Tyson Ott (15 pts, 6 FG, 3 3pt, 2 ast, 1 stl) had another very good game, as did EJ Weix (15 pts, 5 FG, 2 3pt, 2 FT, 4 reb, 3 ast, 1 stl),” he said. “Both were very efficient on the offensive side, and Kory Page (14 pts, 3 FG, 2 3pt, 6 FT, 4 reb, 3 ast, 3 stl)—while he struggled to find his shot in the first half—didn’t hang his head and had a great second half himself.”
Ott, Weix, and Page were the high scorers of the game.
Box Score
Wausau West 61 @ Merrill 54

On Tuesday, Jan. 28, the Merrill Boys played Wausau East in another home game and lost this one 51-59.
“We didn’t start well again, which is going to be a focus for us moving forward,” Pieper said. “It’s been a focus all year, but for some reason the last few conference games we sort of came out of the gate slow and not executing, which has put us in a hole in those games and tonight was the same.”
“To the guys credit, in all those games including tonight, we righted the ship and sort of dictated the game for the most part from that point on, however we just couldn’t quite hit that big shot when we had chances to tie or take the lead,” he said. “We had it down to three points with the ball late and got a great look from someone we want taking that shot and it just didn’t fall. That happens, but again we just can’t start the way we did to put ourselves in such a hole to dig out of.”
“I thought Kory Page (21 pts, 6 FG, 4 3pt, 5 FT, 7 reb, 1 ast, 3 stl) might have had his best night of the year and his career,” Pieper said. “He had 21 points, but he also led us in rebounding, and was very active on defense all night. I really liked the energy he brought tonight.”
“Eli Burtman (6 pts, 2 FG, 2 FT, 3 reb, 1 stl) gave great minutes off the bench again,” he said. “He’s starting to find his groove a little bit over the past couple weeks, and tonight against a big East team he held his own and did a great job on both ends.”

“The broken record continues—another top-five ranked team in the state and another game where if we put it together for 36 minutes, we probably win, but we didn’t do that,” Pieper said. “We have shown time and time again that we can play with and compete with the best, but we need to get over the hump and finish one of these games off. I’m looking forward to the second half of conference play to see if we can get a couple of these to go our way.”
EJ Weix (7 pts, 2 FG, 3 FT, 2 ast, 3 stl) was the other high scorer for Merrill in the game.
Box Score
Wausau East 59 @ Merrill 51