In a packed gymnasium in Institute on Tuesday night the Pioneers defended their homecourt 51-49, holding off a late Clipper surge on U102.1.
Before the Varsity game even started though, the community rallied around the two humans who gave meaning the nights theme of 'Stronger Together' Lucia Ramirez and Blake Butch were in attendance with their families as the Sturgeon Bay and Sevastopol came out to support the fights Lucia and Blake have in front of them battling Leukemia and Brain Tumors respectively.
Not only were the families presented with donations prior to the game, but Lucia and Blake were the only two starters announced for the Pioneers.
The game that followed did everything it could to live up to the hype of the evening. Sevastopol would win the opening tip, but the teams would swap a few empty possessions to open the game. The Pioneers would draw blood first, and would never lose the lead. Andrew Weisner had a pair of three pointers in the first half that helped the Pioneers maintain leads, but the Clippers' Sam Fruzna kept things close with 8 first half points, including going 4-4 from the free throw line. The entire first half, the lead would grow no larger than 6 points.
The second half was a bit more chaotic than the first. The Pioneer lead at one point ballooned to 11 points, but Ben Ash and his 14 second half points helped claw the Clippers back. The Pioneers had to battle through foul trouble for both Logan Schuh and Bo Tanck allowing the Clippers to get several second chance opportunities and cutting into the Pioneer leads.
With less than 5 seconds to go, Sturgeon Bay's Fruzyna found himself at the line for a 1 and 1 bonus opportunity with the Clippers trailing by 3. He would hit the first free throw. Head Coach Zach Goblish called a timeout to draw up the desperation play. He instructed Frusyna to intentionally miss, hoping to get a Clipper rebound and a last second putback attempt, but the ball would slip into Pioneer hands draining the finals moments of the match.
Sevastopol's leading scorers were Andy Weisner with 18, Logan Schuh with 10, and Andrew Weisner with 9. They next head to Algoma to take on the Wolve's Friday December 12th.
The Clippers leading scorers were Ben Ash with 21, Sam Frusyna with 9, and Siggy Hansen with 8. Sturgeon Bay heads home to take on the Southern Door Eagles on Friday December 12, which you can hear as Jacob Nate takes you through the action at 6:45 for the pregame, and the 7:00 PM tipoff.
