Greg Bates, Leader Correspondent
After winning its first six games of the season, the Bonduel High School boys basketball team finally met its match.
Oconto broke a 34-34 tie early in the third quarter with a 16-4 run, and the Bears could never recover. The Bears only got within nine points in the final quarter and fell 72-56 Monday afternoon in the Sun Drop Shootout at the Kress Events Center on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.
Bonduel (6-1, 3-0 Central Wisconsin Conference-8) entered the game at No. 7 in Division 4 in the latest WisSports.net Coaches Poll and was riding high this season, eking out three wins by four points or fewer.
Bonduel coach Duke Copp said an early-season loss could benefit his team.
“As a coach, I see the positives to this,” Copp said. “With some of those games we won, we could have easily lost, and now we just realize we’re not going undefeated, and let’s just go back and play.”
It was just a tough day shooting for Bonduel. The Bears were just 2 for 17 from 3-point range, and those two field goals came in the opening quarter.
“We couldn’t make any shots. We couldn’t make shots when we needed them,” said Bonduel senior Colton Dobratz, who finished with seven points. “Turnovers hurt us, too.”
“I think they just played with more energy than we did, and hit shots,” Copp said. “The one kid we thought wasn’t going to make any hit four 3s and we couldn’t stop the big guy. I was disappointed with our kids’ effort today.”
Bonduel center Peyton Czarapata scored 12 first-half points, but only two in the second half.
Oconto (4-4, 2-3 Packerland) used Sawyer Koch to perfection in the second half, scoring 20 of his game-high 26 points.
Koch, who came in averaging 16 points per game, was the catalyst in Oconto’s game-changing, third-quarter run.
“The plan was, their big guy (Czarapata) had two fouls and so did Koch. I just said, ‘Let’s just get the ball inside, pound it inside,’” Oconto coach Jon Bostedt said. “’Kocher, don’t be selfish. If you have the shot, take it. If you’re point-blank range, put it in. If you’re in the high post, whoever’s at the 4 spot, don’t be afraid to step and seal or cut in on that short corner baseline for some dump downs.’ That’s actually what opened it up, and then making a few 3s, too. It kind of got them on their heels there.”
Copp believes if his players would have taken care of the ball better and were sound on defense, the third quarter wouldn’t have gotten away from Bonduel.
“We’ve been trying to pride ourselves on tough defense, and we just need to get stops,” Copp said. “We were letting the big guy catch the ball at the free-throw line and turn around and shoot it. That’s just not going to work.”
The game was tied 10-10 in the first quarter after Oconto went on a 7-0 run. Bonduel quickly answered with a 16-4 run that stretched into the middle of the second quarter. Czarapata had 10 points in the run, including two 3-point plays.
Down 26-21, Oconto went on an 11-0 spurt and took a 32-30 lead into halftime.
Bonduel tied the game at 34 early in the third quarter before Oconto went on the aforementioned 16-4 run to make it 50-38. The Blue Devils were up 54-43 at end of the third, and the Bears could only get within nine points on four occasions in the final quarter.
Bonduel’s Connor Rosin scored eight points in the fourth, and finished with 11, but it was too little too late.