By MIKE KEMMETER
of The Gazette
The start wasn't pretty but the Stevens Point Area Senior High boys basketball team came to life in the second half Tuesday night to rout Menasha 77-56 in the WIAA Regional.
The Panthers led by six, 27-21, at halftime before exploding in the second half, outscoring the Bluejays 50-35 in the final two quarters.
"We were lax," SPASH coach Bob Schultz said of his team's start. "They were getting rebounds off of missed shots that I thought we should have had. We need to do the same things against whoever we play."
SPASH used both the outside and inside game to blow open the contest. Three-pointers from Casey Taggatz and Nick Bennett opened the third quarter and Bennett and Ross Adamczak added one more each as SPASH took a 48-33 advantage entering the fourth quarter. Inside hoops from Bennett, Taggatz and John Allee in the third helped give the Panthers some balance.
The onslaught continued in the fourth, as Derek Czaikowski opened the quarter with a trey. Bennett then took over, scoring 12 points in a four-minute span before Schultz cleared the bench with a 73-47 lead with 2:35 to go.
While the Panthers finished strong, SPASH gave Menasha second chances in the first half. The Bluejays led 9-8 in the early-goings of the second quarter and kept it close with two late 3-pointers.
SPASH had a tough time on offense and didn't use the inside game as Schultz wanted.
We stressed that we wanted to go inside," Schultz said. "They came out in a zone and there was a hole, but we didn't go inside."
Schultz said the Panthers were unfamiliar with the Bluejays but didn't use that as an excuse for the slow start.
"We knew nothing about these guys when they came in. We were more concerned about the way we played. For the first part of the game we didn't take care of our end," he said.
Bennett led the way with 28 points, 20 of them in the second half. Josh Hall and Taggatz each added 13.
The Panthers move on to face Neenah Saturday at 1:30 p.m. in Menasha.
"We're going to have to play better than we did tonight," Schultz said. "We played well enough to win, but we didn't play good basketball.
"I think each game we go into we might be a slight underdog. It should prepare us a bit better to be ready to play."