A Gunnar Greuel Triple-Double Leads Warriors to Victory

Gunnar Greuel Secures 2nd Career Triple Double vs CornellPhoto byExplore Southern Sawyer County

Winter Wisconsin - The Winter Warriors hosted the Cornell Chiefs on January 30, 2024. In the previous meeting, Winter took home the win with a 94-34 win in Cornell. Cornell comes into the game with a 1-15 record, and 0-9 in Lakeland East conference competition. The Winter Warriors enter the game 9-6, while sitting at 7-3 in Lakeland East conference play.

The Warriors started out quick with a quick 3 with just 20 seconds off the clock, which was immediately followed up by Curtis Thompson Jr., stealing the ball and soaring in for a dunk that energized the crowd and the Warriors bench. The Warriors applied their smothering defense the full 84 feet and midway through the first half, the Warriors jumped out to a 33-8 lead. More pressure came from the Warriors as they unloaded the bench, allowing the reserves to get some invaluable playing time. The Warriors pressure forced 21 first half turnovers, and going into the half, led 57-19.

The Cornell Chiefs, as one would expect, made some adjustments coming out in the second half. Cornell adjusted on the press break to try and alleviate some of the Warriors full court pressure. The Warriors continued to substitute hockey style with fresh legs, and kept the pressure high into the second half. Cornell came out in the second half with a couple of adjustments on offense that led them to a 10-2 scoring run to bring the score to 59-29. The Warriors then went on a 32-9 scoring run to bring the lead to 91-38.

Coach Hautamaki unloaded the bench the rest of the second half allowing the younger athletes to finish the game, and the Warriors reserves held Cornell scoreless for the last 8:26 seconds of the game. The final buzzer rang with a score of 94-38.

Curtis Thompson Jr led all scorers with 27 points, 2 rebounds, 4 assists, and 7 steals. Adam Bednorski added 25 points connecting on 6 triples, to go along with 2 assists, and 5 steals. Gunnar Greuel came up big, once again, instead of a Quadruple-Double this game, he finished with a Triple-Double. Greuel scored 22 points, collecting 22 rebounds, 10 assists, 3 steals, and adding one blocked shot. Malte Colliander did a little bit of everything finishing with 6 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals, and 2 blocked shots. Logan Hautamaki added 5 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, and 1 mosterous block. Kingston Frey added some great depth off the bench with 4 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, and 1 blocked shot. Jared Melton scored his first basket of the 2023-2024 season on a 3 pointer at the top of the key that sent the Warriors faithful into a frenzy. Rounding out the scoring included Cole Petit with a beautiful drive into traffic and an acrobatic layup.

The Warriors forced a total of 38 turnovers, 25 coming from team steals, collected a total of 41 team rebounds, dished out 26 assists, and added 7 team blocks. The Warriors scored 54 points in the paint, 24 from 3, and added 16 from the charity stripe. The Warriors remain the highest scoring team in Division 5 play with 79.8 points per game, widening the margin ahead of #10 ranked Ithaca with 76.8 points per game. The Warriors also rank 1st in rebounds with 43.4 rebounds per game, 1st in assists with 20.2 assists per game, 1st in steals with 17.0 steals per game, and 2nd in blocks with 5.1 blocks per game.

The Warriors move to 10-6 over, and 7-3 in Lakeland East competition. The Warriors have won 8 of their last 9 games, and have been averaging 89.0 points per game while giving up just 59.2 points per game, good for a 29.8 point margin of victory.

Gunnar Greuel continues to lead the state of Wisconsin in rebounds with 21.8 rebounds per game while also adding 21.3 points per game, 5.7 assists, 3.8 steals, and 1.8 blocks per game. Adam Bednorski continues his hot shooting while he widens the game with the most 3-point makes (73), just 4 ahead of New Richmond's Reis Hidde (69). Bednorski is averaging 19.6 points per game. Curtis Thompson Jr adds 17.8 points per game, and Carter Petit follows with 10.8 points per game.

In the Lakeland East Conference race, New Auburn holds strong in the lead with a 9-2 record, followed by a two way tie between Birchwood and Winter with records of 7-3, meanwhile Flambeau sits alone at 7-4, followed by Clayton at 6-5. Bruce fell to 6-6, Lake Holcombe was leading the conference two weeks ago, now sits at 5-5, followed by Prairie Farm at 1-10, and Cornell at 0-10. The Conference title is still up for grabs, as there is no clear cut favorite.

The Warriors are in action on February 1st as they host Frederic at home. Frederic is a Lakeland West Conference opponent with a record of 3-14, and a most recent win over Siren, who hit a last second shot to beat the Warriors 59-57 on December 14, 2023. The Warriors look to keep their winning streak alive as they prepare to travel to New Auburn to take on the conference leaders on Friday, February 2, 2024.

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