Wausau Pilot & Review
MINOCQUA – The No. 9 seed Wausau East boys basketball team hit the road for its playoff opener and dominated No. 8 Lakeland, rolling to a 76-50 victory in a WIAA Division 2 regional quarterfinal Tuesday at Lakeland High School.
Wausau East (6-18) moves on to a regional semifinal at No. 1 seed Fox Valley Lutheran (20-4) in Appleton on Friday night. Lakeland finishes its season at 10-15.
East cruised out to a 39-25 lead by halftime and finished strong, outscoring the Thunderbirds by 12 points in the second half.
East shot 58 percent from the field (28-for-48) and made 11 3-pointers in the victory.
Dylan Buchberger was 11-for-13 shooting and scored a game-high 26 points, and also grabbed 15 rebounds for the Lumberjacks. Gabe Napgezek added 20 points, seven rebounds and five assists in the victory.
“Best game from start to finish we’ve played all year,” East coach Dan Garrett said. “I’m really proud of how we prepared this week heading into the game at Lakeland. We executed on both ends the whole game. Dylan and Gabe dominated on the inside tonight as we took advantage of our size. We got enough contributions from others to get a really solid win on the road.”
Lumberjacks 76, Thunderbirds 50
Wausau East 39 37 – 76
Lakeland 25 25 – 50
WAUSAU EAST (76): Dylan Buchburger 11-13 4-6 26, Gabe Napgezek 6-10 5-9 20, Noah Stroming 4-8 0-0 11, DeAngelo Ingram 3-5 0-0 9, Isaac Rozwadowski 3-8 0-0 8, Jack Cayley 1-2 0-1 2, Nick Sielaff 0-0 2-2 2, Brady Prihoda 0-0 1-2 1, Caden Wrth 0-1 0-0 0, Jaydan Garrett 0-0 0-2 0, Aiden Dykstra 0-0 0-0 0, Nate Murphy 0-1 0-0 0, Nicolai Ogstad 0-0 0-0 0, Abdul Valid 0-0 0-0 0. FG: 28-48. FT: 12-22. 3-pointers: 11-26. 3-pointers: (Ingram 3-5, Napgezek 3-6, Stroming 3-6, Rozwadowski 2-7, Werth 0-1, Murphy 0-1). Rebounds: 23 (Buchburger 15). Record: 6-18.
LAKELAND (50): Statistics not reported. Record: 10-15.
