By Robert Whitmire

The SPASH boys basketball team found itself in a battle to the end managing to pull out a 72 – 66 win over the Wausau East Lumberjacks at the field house Friday night. The loss drops East to 6 – 5 in the Wisconsin Valley conference.

“We came out here with a mentality to get the win for the seniors,” said Drew Blair. “We needed a spark late and a couple of those guys gave it to us.”

The Panthers took a 39 – 33 lead into the halftime break. East came out determined to disappoint the home crowd on Senior Night and outscored SPASH 26 – 11 to take a 59 -50 lead with 7:10 remaining on the clock.

SPASH outscored East 22 – 16 down the stretch including some clutch shooting from the charity stripe. Senior Keon’te Williams put an exclamation point on the win with a thunderous slam dunk and only seconds remaining.

The Panthers notched their 50th consecutive Wisconsin Valley Conference win and improved to 17 – 4 overall.

“Before the game our coach told us to protect the house and with our third time out in that second half we knew that we to give it everything we had,” said senior Keon’te Williams.

Seniors Logan Lewis, Beau Rosenthal, Spencer Tyson and Keon’te Williams. (City Times photo)

Junior Joey Hauser poured in a game high 33 points to lead the Panther scoring. Drew Blair added 18 and Keon’te Williams, 9 points. SPASH hit 27 field goals including three 3-pointers and went 9 for 11 at the charity stripe.

The Panthers close out the regular season on the road when they travel to Wausau West Thursday, February 23. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 PM.

The SPASH Junior Varsity improved its season record to 17 – 3 with a 61 – 25 win.

SPASH Scoring:

Varsity: Joey Hauser 33; Drew Blair 18; Keon’te Williams 9; Beau Rosenthal 6; Spencer Tyson 4; Logan Lewis 2.
SPASH Junior Varsity: Evan Vollendorf 14; Nolan Blair 13; Brett Ehr 9; Joe Bergquist 8; Michael Vitt 7; Elliot Eron 5; Darren Zwicker 2; Braden Christophersen 2; Tom Hatton 1.