Dennis Wilson Leader Correspondent
Professional wrestler Ric Flair used to famously say, “To be the man you have to beat the man.” That can also be used to describe the Shawano High School boys basketball team in their Bay Conference opener against Xavier on Tuesday at Xavier.
Xavier, the defending Division 3 state champions, are the men to beat in the conference, and Shawano knew it would be a tough Bay opener.
Xavier (4-0, 1-0 Bay) had four players reach double figures in the game and cruised to a 109-60 victory, Xavier’s 50th straight home win. Hunter Plamann led the team with 24 points, followed by Nate DeYoung with 18 and Nick Otto with 16.
“They have won 50 straight games here at home, and they are the number one team in the state for a reason,” Shawano head coach David Ambrosius said. “I don’t care who they’re playing, that is the number one offense in the state by far.
“In the four games they have played so far, they have scored over 100 points, and tonight was no different. In a high school game, that’s going to be really tough to match.”
With scoring notwithstanding, Ambrosius didn’t hesitate when asked about the positive takeaways.
“With four games so far this season, we have had three different leading scorers,” he said. “It shows the balanced scoring that this team has.”
Tuesday’s leading scorer was Nick Grignon. The 6-foot junior poured in 15 points, albeit all in the first half, to pace Shawano (2-2, 0-1 Bay). Grignon was the only player in double figures, and was helped out by Atty Wagner and Kaden Richards, both of whom chipped in seven apiece.
“He has really been coming along in the last couple weeks,” Ambrosius said about Grignon. “He’s been really shooting the ball well in the last couple games as well. So it really wasn’t surprising for him to come out and perform the way that he did.”
Grignon knew the game would be tough, but he wasn’t expecting the outcome.
“Personally, I believe that we didn’t think we would get blown out of the gym right away,” Grignon said. “We made a few mistakes that led to us getting down early in the game.
“We have to trust each other. We have to understand and know that the guy next to you is going to have your back when everything is going well for them and nothing is going right for us.”