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Trying to stop the Cuba City boys basketball team is like the little Dutch boy trying to plug the hole in the dike in the fairy tale.
It is near impossible.
Mineral Point stayed with the powerful Cubans, ranked first in Division 4, trailing by one at the half, 33-32. Much of the the Pointers' success came from the 17 points Joah Filardo pumped in. He was matched by Carter Olson who netted 10 for the Cubans and Jack Misky who had 13.
But then the dike sprung its leak.
Misky, who recently topped the 1000 point career mark, was a picture of consistency with an additional 13 points the second half but it was Riley Richard who started the flood that saw the Cubans outscore the Pointers 44-30 the second half. Richard popped in a pair of three pointers on the way to 14 second half points, his total for the game.
Misky led with 26 and Olson added 16. A fourth double figure scorer materialized when Max Lucey scored 10.
Filardo put in eight second half points to lead the Pointers with 25. Forward Ian Keyes also reached double figures with 10.
Mineral Point coach Dan Burreson liked the start his team enjoyed but knows it takes 36 strong minutes to have a chance against the Cubans.
"For 16 minutes in the first half we play really well," Burreson said. "Then we have a couple bad offensive possessions and lost our composure. You cannot do that against teams like Cuba City. We were our own worst enemy at times tonight."
Burreson said some of his squad had a strong outing against the talented Cubans.
"Joah Filardo was really good offensively with 25 points and he had seven rebounds off the boards," Burreson said. "Cameron Wiegman played very well and led us with nine rebounds. Liam Stumpf had eight boards."
"We showed in the first half what we are capable of, but now we need to do that all the time."
SCORE BY HALVES
Cuba City 33 44 77
Mineral Point 32 30 62
BOX SCORE
CUBA CITY 77: (fg-ft-tp) Richard 5-2-14, Olson 3-9-16, Lucey 2-4-10, Misky 11-4-26, Reese 3-0-8, Vosberg 1-1-3, Bussan 0-0-0, Kopp 0-0-0, Robson 0-0-0, Niles 0-0-0 Totals 25-20/22-77 Fouls-15
MINERAL POINT 62: Ward 0-0-0, Bowers 2-1-5, McVay 2-0-4, Gorgen 0-0-0, Goninen 0-0-0, Wiegman 2-0-4, Bossert 1-0-3, Filardo 7-8-25, Stumpf 3-0-7, Sporle 0-0-0, Acherman 1-2-4, Keyes 5-0-10 Totals 23-11/12-62 Fouls-21
3 point goals:
CC-(7) Richard 2, Olson 1, Lucey 2, Reese 2
MP-(5) Bossert 1, Filardo 3, Stumpf 1