Transition offense fuels Bulldogs

By Erik Buchinger

Three New London players scored at least 20 points in the Bulldogs’ 86-80 win over Menasha at home on Tuesday, Dec. 19.

The Bulldogs go off to a hot start with Will Wohlt scoring the game’s first seven points, and they led 20-4 four minutes in to the game. Wohlt finished with 20 points in the win.

“It was really nice the way we started off pushing the ball really well,” Wohlt said. “The way we can run the floor, it’s going to be hard to stop.”

New London ran up and down the court in transition whenever possible in the first half, which led to easy baskets for the Bulldogs.

“We have some athletic guys with good shooters, and we’re pretty good in the open court at times,” New London head coach Kurt Schommer said. “We need to defend the paint first and then once we get that, we get good rebounding and outlets. I wanted our guys to run because we’ve got some athletic guys that can really get to the rim.”

New London’s Brayden Kurth scored a team-high 22 points and said speeding things up helped the offense.

“We pushed the tempo,” Kurth said. “Lately we’ve been kind of slow with the ball, but we decided we need to push the ball more if we want to score more, so it looks like that’s working well for us.”

Menasha responded with a run and cut the lead to 32-28 with three minutes left in the half.

“We started out a little bit hot in the beginning, but [Menasha] fought back,” New London head coach Kurt Schommer said. “We knew they were going to, and it was going to be a grind. It was an outstanding effort by our guys. They didn’t quit, they didn’t stop and they didn’t get their heads down when Menasha did get their run.”

New London went into halftime with a 42-35 lead, and the Bulldogs kept a lead around 10 points throughout the second half.

New London’s Garret Locy knocked down several free throws down the stretch to finish 8 of 10 from the line. He finished with a double-double with 20 points and added 10 assists.

Kyle Wolf scored 12 points and dished out eight assists.

“I’m just really proud of the way we shared the ball and attacked the hoop,” Schommer said. “Good things happen when we take care of the ball.”

Kurth went down with a tweaked ankle seconds before the game ended but said he would be OK, as the Bulldogs improved to 4-3 overall including 2-1 in the Bay Conference.

“I’m just really proud of my guys,” Schommer said. “If we work this hard, we’ll be able to compete with anybody.”