Week of milestones for Tri-County prep boys hoops teams

It was a week of milestones for Tri-County Area prep boys basketball teams.

For Osseo-Fairchild it was a conference title. O-F nailed down the Large Dairyland title winning three league games in six days, it's first such crown since the 1980s when they were still in the DC before moving to the Cloverbelt.

For Fall Creek head coach Rick Storlie, it was win No. 500 in a 36-year career, 34 of it at Fall Creek where he succeeded the legendary Ron Schultz as boys' basketball head coach and continued the Crickets' tradition of success on the hardwood. That win came at Cadott in a rescheduled contest on Tuesday, Feb. 11 and was part of a successful rebound for FC after a disasterous loss at Eau Claire Regis last week.

For Augusta, it was sweeping the season series against rival Eleva-Strum with a 92-83 win Tuesday, Feb. 11 at Central and putting sophomore guard Owen Lee in position over the Beavers' next four games to tie or break the single-season steals record at the school and has established himself as one of the leading steals player in the state.

For Eleva-Strum it was millstone, not milestone as the Cardinals are still without a win this season after the close loss to AHS and running out of time to get one. E-S was also beaten last week by Elmwood/Plum City (6-12) at PC on Monday, Feb. 3 by a 71-30 score, Blair-Taylor (15-5) 72-25 on Thursday, Feb. 6 and Independence/Gilmanton (9-12) 66-45 on Saturday, Feb. 8. Both LDC games were at E-S. The Cardinal host Osseo-Fairchild this Friday, St. Valentine's Day at home.

Speaking of the Thunder, they bounced back from a loss to Lincoln by first topping Independence/Gilmanton at Gilmanton on Thursday, Feb. 6 by a score of 75-61. Twenty-four hours later at home O-F defeated Alma/Pepin (8-11) 65-53. Despite falling behind early, the Thunder took a 20-19 lead late in the first half, and were up 27-21 at the break. Osseo-Fairchild controlled the second half thanks to Jack Steinke's six three-pointers to finish with a game-high 27 points. Teammate Drake Swett had 11 points, and seven other Thunder players also marked the scorebook. It was this win that nailed down the division title. Then on Tuesday, Feb. 11 Osseo-Fairchild beat the closest team to them in the division standings, Whitehall (8-10), on the road 76-61.

There was only one recent blemish for O-F, 18-3 overall, and that came as a part of a recent revival for Fall Creek this week. Eau Claire Regis got on a shooter's roll in their home gym Friday, Feb. 7 and ripped apart the Crickets 81-47. Regis made 16 three-pointers led by Blake Risler's five, Owen Wiesenberger's four and freshman guard D.J. Cooper's three. Not coincidently it was Risler who led the Ramblers in scoring with 30 points, 21 of them in the second half to prevent any Fall Creek comeback, Wiesenberger finished with 20, which put him in the 1,000 point club for his four years there, and Cooper had 11 points. Only one player for FC finished in double figures, junior center Miles Schmidgall with 14. The Crickets made just three trifectas for the ballgame and also shot a miserable 4-for-10 from the foul line.

Fall Creek couldn't linger too long on the loss to Regis for they were back in action 72 hours later at home against rival Osseo-Fairchild, now a non-conference game. The Crickets' defense was much more stiff against the Thunder and they won 66-52. Schmidgall scored 14 points but FC got significant contributions from their guards Josh Wright and Jackson Tangley to the tune of 17 points each while Evan Seidling finished with nine points. Corbin Sell had a team-best 12 rebounds while Schmidgall had 10 of the Crickets' 39 boards and Wright recorded eight assists and three steals while Sell made five of FC's 12 steals.

The very next day FC won a rescheduled contest at Cadott 78-67. Six players were in double figures for Fall Creek led by Schmidgall's 19 points, 12 from Cullen Kramer, 11 from Jayse Hillman and 10 each for Wright and Tangley. Schmidgall had another double-double with 12 rebounds and both Wright and Tangley each had four assists. Although FC is game back of Bloomer in the Western Cloverbelt standings, they control their own destiny in the league title chase with upcoming games, this Thursday, Feb. 13 at Bloomer, 13-4 overall, and next Tuesday, Feb. 18 at Chippewa Falls McDonell (13-7).

"We just got back to fundamentals and try and correct the things that just did not go well in the (Regis) game," Storlie said. "We use it as a life lesson. Just as in life, not everything is going to go as planned and sometimes bad things happen. How will you respond? That shows the character of the individual and team. We can not change the past, but we can learn from it. Move on and get ready for the next challenge ahead of us."

For both Augusta and Eleva-Strum it was nice to play in a game on Tuesday, Feb. 11 at Central that was still close at halftime and featured some top plays and shooting. AHS led 49-45 at the break as the lead see-sawed in the first half and held onto their lead throughout the second half despite numerous attempts by the Cardinal to cut into it repeatedly until they ran out of time. Eight players scored for the Beavers led by 27 points for Bryce Buttke and 23 for Noah Schroeder. Lee finished with 17 points, (but just two steals). Dimitri Schroeder had nine points. Augusta made 18-of-23 free throws, 12 of those coming from Buttke. E-S had three players with over 20 points, 22 from Bo Windjue, 21 from Calvin Barneson and 20 points for Noah Martinson while Titan Miller scored eight points. Despite a recent injury, Buttke is currently third in the Large Dairyland in scoring averaging nearly 15 points per game.

AHS lost last week Thursday, Feb. 6 at Melrose-Mindoro (4-14) 65-44 despite 13 points for Noah Schroeder and 11 for Lee (with four steals and six assists). This was due to getting off to a bad start and trailing 32-17 at halftime, unable to catch up committing some 21 turnovers in the ballgame. They also lost their final non-conference game of the season Tuesday, Feb. 4 at Fall Creek 77-49 thanks to another bad start, this time down 47-17 at the break. Beau Harmer and Dimitri Schroeder both scored 12 points for the Beavers, 3-17 overall, and Noah Schroeder had 10 with Harmer grabbing six rebounds and making four assists. Eleven players scored at least two points or more for Fall Creek, 12-7 overall, with Schmidgall finishing with 18 points, Seidling 14, Hillman 12 and Kramer nine points. Schmidgall had 10 rebounds, Tangley had five assists and Seidling had three steals.