Iola-Scandy beats Markesan
By Holly Neumann
The Iola-Scandinavia Thunderbirds remain undefeated (7-0) after beating the Markesan Hornets 71-60 in a non-conference game at home Friday, Jan. 3.
“Coming in, we knew that Markesan was a very good team,” said I-S coach Sam Bertsch. “They came in at 6-0. It was truly our first test of the season where we had to play an entire game.”
The T-Birds topped Markesan 35-25 after the first half.
Justin Sivertson sank 15 of his game high 25 points for the T-Birds, while Christian Schwandt dropped in 11 for Markesan.
The T-Birds were only able to outscore the Hornets 36-35 in the final half.
Sivertson again had the hot hand for the T-Birds, dropping in 10, while Max Stellmacher had 17 for the Hornets.
“Markesan chipped away at us and got the game down to six,” said Bertsch. “Good teams will give you runs and you have to be able to respond to them. I like how the team kept their composure and kept playing their game.”
Although Bertsch thought that his team could have shot the ball better, he felt they played well as a team.
“Markesan did an excellent job of taking away our transition points, something that we’ve been able to do frequently in our first six games,” he said. “They also took away the lane so we had to rely on our outside shooting. We had to find ways to score in our half-court offense and we were still able to put up 71 points.”
Sivertson led the scoring for I-S with 25 points, followed by Connor Kurki with 12, and Will Cady and Brye Hardel with 10 each.
Parker Prahl lead the rebounding for the T-Birds with 13 followed by Kurki with 12.
Leading the scoring for Markesan was Stellmacher with 21, followed by Schwandt with 20 and Bryson Zuhlke with 15.
The T-Birds will travel to Shiocton on Tuesday, Jan. 7 to take on the Chiefs.