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By Levi Zimmerman
Mineral Point boys basketball won its fifth conseuctive game Tuesday by posting a 65-48 victory over Southern Door in tournament play.
Originally, the Pointers were supposed to host a two-day, four-team tournament Tuesday and Wednesday, as Southern Door, Black Hawk and Wilmot were invited to compete.
But Wilmot ultimately decided not to participate due to COVID-19 complications.
Wilmot was scheduled to play Mineral Point Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
The three remaining teams, instead, agreed to play each other over three days.
Although they have just two wins, the Southern Door Eagles stayed with the Pointers stride for stride early on.
But they took a hit when their starting point guard and leading-scorer, Drew Doust, went down with an injury.
Mineral Point made a short run to end the first half and led 29-24.
The Pointers started clicking offensively in the second half and were strong in the rebounding game; they went on a seven-point run that started with a three-pointer by senior Bodie Bossert.
Seniors Leyten Bowers and Joah Filardo added two-point scores to give Mineral Point a 42-29 advantage with 10 minutes left in regulation.
The Eagles, however, went on a seven-point run of their own, and Taylor Schaefer had six of them.
The Pointers shored up their defense, forcing turnovers which resulted in points in transition.
Bowers assisted Bossert on a layup, Owen Ward had a tip-score and Bossert scored once more in transition to put the Pointers back on top, 50-39 with 6:10 left.
Senior Dominik McVay added to the lead with an and-one play on a hard drive to the goal.
McVay made the free throw to secure the three-point play the old-fashioned way.
Ward continued to have a strong performance for Mineral Point; he had another inside score on an assist from Bowers and dished out an assist to Filardo in the next possession.
The Pointers were cohesive offensively, sharing the ball and getting high-percentage shot attempts from the floor.
Schaefer led Southern Door with 20 points, followed by Nic Pierre with 11.
Leading Mineral Point in scoring was Filardo, who had 20 points.
Ward had his highest-scoring game of his career Tuesday night with 14 points to go along with 14 rebounds for a double-double.
Bossert also had 14 points.
Head coach of the Pointers, Dan Burreson stated, "They (Southern Door) were scrappy. They hung around and made us work. I like how our guys just kept battling and working at it."
He added, "I thought we shared the ball really well and got contributions from a number of guys. Owen Ward was big for us tonight, and he's always big for us on the boards. Bodie Bossert looks to be getting back to himself after coming off an injury. Overall, I think we did a lot of good things."
The Pointers improved to 7-1 with the win.
SCORE BY HALVES
Southern Door 24 24 48
Mineral Point 29 36 65
BOX SCORE
SOUTHERN DOOR 48: (fg-ft-tp)Doust 3-0-6, Peterson 1-0-2, N. Pierre 3-2-11, Jeanquart 2-0-5, Hawkey 1-0-2, Mahnke 1-0-2, Diller 0-0-0, Schinktgen 0-0-0, J. Pierre 0-0-0, LeGrave 0-0-0, Perez-Mungula 0-0-0, Schaefer 7-6-20. Totals- 18-8/14-48 Fouls- 16
MINERAL POINT 65: Ward 6-2-14, Bowers 2-2-6, McVay 1-2-4, Lindsey 2-1-5, Goninen 0-2-2, Kisgen 0-0-0, Bossert 6-1-14, Hottenstein 0-0-0, J. Filardo 7-4-20, Jackson 0-0-0, Palzkill 0-0-0, Acherman 0-0-0. Totals- 24-14/21-65 Fouls- 17
3 point goals:
SD (4)- N. Pierre 3, Jeanquart 1
MP (3)- J. Filardo 2, Bossert 1