Wildcats win home tourney

A flurry of 3-pointers fell early and often Saturday to lift the Gresham Community High School boys basketball team to a 61-42 win over Goodman-Pembine in the championship game of the Gresham Booster Club Holiday Tournament in Gresham.

Gresham’s first three baskets were from beyond the 3-point arc. Senior guard Christian Haffner — who scored 29 points Friday night in a win over Menominee Indian — hit four first-half 3-pointers. Freshman Drew Haffner and sophomore Neal Cerveny each added 3s of their own in the first half as the Wildcats (7-0, 5-0 Central Wisconsin Conference-8) built a 33-21 lead.

“I don’t think we played our best game,” Gresham coach Jeff Zobeck said. “I thought we probably played a little better in the first half yesterday that we did all night tonight, but we did enough.”

Goodman-Pembine (5-2, 4-0 Northern Lakes Conference) hit four 3-pointers in the first half, and went on a 12-5 run midway through the second quarter to pull within 26-18.

Gresham’s defense was happy to give up the outside shooting to stop the Patriots from getting shots inside.

“I hate to play zone,” Zobeck said. “We knew it was going to be a problem stopping their penetration. … We gave up some 3s, we don’t like to do that either. It seemed like the lesser of two evils tonight.”

The Patriots adjusted to take away outside shots in the second half, but that opened things up inside for Gresham.

Haffner scored 15 of his 31 points in the second half, including all seven of Gresham’s fourth-quarter points. Cerveny finished with 11 points. The two were also selected for the all-tournament team.

Alex Whitt, also named to the all-tournament team, led Goodman-Pembine with 11 points, eight in the second half.

Zobeck said he wants his team to be more balanced.

“We want to get more guys in the post,” he said. “We’re going to try and get in there. We want to drive the ball a little bit more. You saw bits and pieces of it tonight. We’ll really be good when we can get a better mix and not rely on the 3 quite as much.”

Tourney results

In the varsity boys consolation game Saturday, Menominee Indian beat Oneida Nation, 37-26.

The Menominee Indian girls basketball team beat Coleman 36-29 in the girls varsity championship game. In the girls varsity consolation game, Gresham beat Oneida 29-22.

In junior varsity action, Gresham beat Wolf River Lutheran 53-23 in the championship game, and Menominee Indian beat Goodman-Pembine 47-20 in the consolation game. Menominee Indian beat Coleman 43-22 in the girls championship game. Bowler beat Menominee Indian C-Team 32-26 in the consolation game.

Goodman-Pembine (42)

Glanzer 3 1-2 8, Bruce 1 0-0 3, Bose 2 0-0 5, Kryzeicki 4 0-0 9, Whitt 5 0-1 11, Grandaw 2 0-0 6

Gresham (61)

C. Haffner 12 3-4 31, D. Haffner 2 0-0 6, Cerveny 5 0-0 11, Eggert 4 0-0 8, Kazik 1 0-0 2, Nietzer 1 1-2 3

Goodman-Pembine 6 15 15 6 — 42

Gresham 14 19 21 7 — 61