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Posted February 20, 2008

Boys basketball: Assumption too strong for Athens
By Michael Kommer
For the Wausau Daily Herald
WISCONSIN RAPIDS -- It has been said offense wins games and defense wins championships.

It was strong defensive play that kept the Assumption boys dreams of a championship alive as it defeated the Athens 71-19 in a Division 4 regional quarterfinal on Tuesday night.

Assumption will face Rosholt, a 43-31 winner over Almond-Bancroft, in a regional semifinal at home on Thursday.

"The kids battled back tonight after some recent losses," Assumption coach Gary Weisenbeck said. "Everyone did a great job on defense and offense tonight."

The Royals' defense hounded the Athens shooters all night tipping passes, intercepting the ball and most of the time limiting Athens to one shot per possession.

Senior Ben Kinzel had a team-high 20 points for the Royals.

The defense held Athens scoreless until 48 seconds into the second quarter. The Bluejays scored 10 points in the quarter, their highest output of any quarter, but went into the locker room at the half down 38-10.

"You can't fall behind that much against any team," Athens coach Rick Guralski said. "Their (Assumption) future in the playoffs is bright."

The Royals picked up where they left off in the third quarter, out-scoring the Bluejays 20-5 to head into the final quarter up 58-15.

Assumption never relented its attack.

The Royals scored an additional 13 points while replacing their starters with reserve players in the fourth quarter.

Royals 71, Bluejays 19

Athens 0 10 5 4 -- 19

Assumption 18 20 20 13 -- 71

ATHENS (19): Brock Guralski 6, Eric Scheiner 5, Kyle Walters 4, Brendan Dobbs 2, Jon Payne 2.

ASSUMPTION (71): Ben Kinzel 20, Alex Erdmann 11, Jared Sigler 10, Jake O'Shasky 8, Brandon Fish 6, Billy Lobner 5, Shane Hickey 4, Matt Turba 3, Elliot Eichinger 2, Eric Scharff 2.

3-pointers: Athens 1 (Schreiner); Assumption 2 (Turba, Billy Lobner).

Records: Assumption 16-5; Athens 2-17.