Who: Marshfield (13-11) vs Merrill (16-8)
Where: Wausau East High School
When: Thursday, March 8 at 7pm
What: Division 2 Sectional Semi-Final
SPORTSDESK – In a somewhat unlikely sectional semi-final matchup in Division 2, we have the #5 seed Marshfield Tigers and the #2 seed Merrill Blue Jays. In their Regional Final, the Tigers handily defeated the #9 seed Medford Raiders, 69-42. The Raiders helped the Tigers cause by taking down the #1 seed Rhinelander Hodags the day before in double overtime by a narrow margin of 63-61. The Blue Jays steadily moved their way through their region by taking down Hortonville by 11 and Lakeland Union by 7.
Merrill and Marshfield are both members of the Wisconsin Valley Conference and played each other twice during the regular season. Marshfield won the first meeting at home 84-63 and then went on the road six weeks later and again took down the Blue Jays 77-70.
Marshfield scoring leader, Seth Anderson, scored a combined 66 points in those two games and will be needed again at a high level if the Tigers expect to accomplish the hat trick on Thursday night. The Blue Jays are led by senior, Zach Mootz, and junior, Quinn Steckbauer, scoring 18 points per game and 17 points per game, respectively.
Live streaming of this game can be found Thursday evening at www.zaleskisports.com. Students planning to attend the game in-person can go to the Senior High main office and purchase tickets for a bus ride and game entry for only $10. Bus tickets must be purchased by 3:30 pm on Wednesday, March 7th.
Note – Marshfield’s Seth Anderson is seven points away from breaking the Marshfield all-time season scoring record. The current record, 540 points, was set during the 1967-68 season by Bill Rhyner.