All six basketball teams for the New London Bulldogs and Clintonville Truckers met up for the annual Holiday Classic tournament last week.
It started out with the Lady Bulldog JV team taking home a 46-22 win.
The second round of the day featured the Clintonville Boys JV team winning a close 45-41 victory over New London. The Trucker freshman girls also won a close 23-19 match-up over the Bulldogs.
Varsity girls
In the final round of games the varsity girls took the court where the truckers started out hot, however the Bulldogs prevailed in a 57-38 victory.
Clintonville jumped out to a 10-9 lead after one quarter of play and the truckers kept the Bulldogs within three at the half.
The second half proved costly for the Truckers as the Bulldogs erupted for 38 second half points, most of those points came from Bridget Pethke who topped all scorers with 20 points. Fifteen of her 20 game points came on five three-point baskets for an individual season high. Kayla Schuh followed with 14 points and shot two three-point baskets in the game.
Trucker Nichole Paisar paced the truckers with 13 points and led her team with three three-point baskets.
The Bulldogs converted 4 out of 9 free throws while the truckers converted 12 out of 20.
Bulldog Coach Troy Krause had plenty to say about the game.
“I thought it was a typical after Christmas game. I thought we started out a little slow and sluggish in the first half. We had a lot of open shots but were unable to make very many. Clintonville came out and played very well. They are a well coached team and were able to take advantage of our slow start. We just needed to clean some things up and pick up the intensity on defense. I thought we did a good job of that in the second half and were able to regain control of the game.”
Boys varsity
The night of basketball action was capped off with the boys varsity teams taking the court. Much like the girls game the Truckers kept the game fairly close and were down by only three points by the end of the first quarter.
New London capped off an 18 point second quarter while holding Clintonville to six points. Clintonville pulled within six points of the Bulldogs by mid fourth quarter, however a balanced New London squad would not let the Truckers out of the terminal.
Patrick VanDaalwyk led all scorers with 19 points in the game. Jake Reiter had seven points for the Truckers.
New London’s Ethan Steingraber scored a team and season high with11 points, and teammate Tyler Listle had 10. New London converted 11 of 24 free throws while Clintonville converted 11 out of 18. Jason Wenzel shot two three-point baskets for New London while VanDaalwyk shot Clintonville’s lone three.
New London Girls will return to Bay Conference play which included a trip to Seymour Tuesday, and they host Denmark Monday, Jan. 10.
The Clintonville girls hosted Xavier Tuesday, then travel to Waupaca Friday, Jan. 7, then host Seymour Monday, Jan.10.
The Bulldog boys will travel to Seymour Thursday and travel to Denmark Tuesday, Jan. 11. Clintonville Boys will traveled to Xavier Tuesday and will host Waupaca next Tuesday, Jan. 11.
Varsity Records
New London Boys 5-4
Clintonville Boys 1-8
New London Girls 6-2
Clintonville Girls 3-4
Girls varsity
New London 9 10 20 18 – 57
Clintonville 10 6 14 8 – 38
New London: Pethke 20, Schuh 14, Paalman 8, Steinert 6, Knapstein 5, Heise 2, Steffanus 2. 3 pt: Pethke 5, Schuh 2. FTs: 4-9. Fouls: 21.
Clintonville: Paisar 13, Klegin 6, Kautz 4, Reinke 4, Westphal 4, Hoffman 3, Peeters 2, Pugh 1, Richter 1. 3 pt: Paisar 3, Hoffman 1. FTs: 12-20. Fouls: 12.
Boys varsity
New London 8 18 10 9 – 45
Clintonville 5 6 14 13 – 38
New London: E. Steingraber 11, Listle 10, Pluff 9, Wenzel 8, C. Steingraber 3, Thiel 3, Huntley 1. 3 pt: Wenzel 2, Listle 1, C. Steingraber 1. FTs: 11-24. Fouls: 17.
Clintonville: Van Daalwyk 19, Rieter 7, Fletcher 6, Fisher 2, Riemer 2, Sawall 2. 3 pt: Van Daalwyk 1. FTs: 11-18. Fouls: 20.