Tigerton jumped out to a big early lead and held on in the fourth quarter to steal a victory from the Eagles in Almond, 48-45.
Randy Tiutczenko scored the first eight points for the Tigers, and they led 8-4 midway through the first period. In the final two minutes of the quarter, Nick Desrochers hit three consecutive three-pointers to give Tigerton a 21-6 lead.
Almond went on a 7-0 run to open the second quarter to cut the lead to 21-13, but Jason Littlefield scored six straight points to increase the Tigers' lead to 27-13. Ryan Neuman hit an amazing half-court shot at the buzzer to give Tigerton a 32-19 halftime advantage.
Desrochers started the third period with four points to give the Tigers their largest lead of the night, 36-19. However, Almond outscored Tigerton through the rest of the period 9-3 to close to 39-28 to start the fourth quarter.
Almond started the quarter on a 12-3 run, closing with a three-pointer by Steve Nickel with 3:23 left in the game to cut the lead to 42-40. After a steal by Trevor Dernbach with 3:00 remaining, Almond's Chad Newby and Dernbach missed possible game-tying shots in transition before Josh Graham fouled out with 2:50.
With 2:00 left in regulation, Tiutczenko scored Tigerton's only field goal in the fourth quarter to give the Tigers a 44-40 advantage before Almond hit three of four free throws to cut the lead to 44-43 with 1:26 remaining. Littlefield answered by hitting two of his own free throws to increase the lead to 46-43 with 1:02 to play, but Almond's Kent Dernbach converted two free throw attempts to cut the lead back to one at 46-45.
After running off :22, Desrochers was fouled and made one of two free throw attempts with :30 left to make the score 47-45. Kent Dernbach missed a tying shot, and Desrochers was fouled on the rebound with :05 left. He again made one of two free throws to push the lead to 48-45. Nickel missed a tying three-pointer at the buzzer to seal the Tigers' victory.
Tigerton's next game is back at home on Tuesday night against the Port Edwards Blackhawks.
POINTSREBOUNDSASSISTS
  
Nick Desrochers | Jason Littlefield | Josh Graham
| 15 points | 8 rebounds | 3 assists
| |
BASKETBALL BOX SCORE -- G A M E T O T A L S
Tigerton vs Almond-Bancroft
12-11-98 7:50 pm, CST at Almond, WI
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VISITORS: Tigerton (2-2), (2-1)
2PT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
No. N A M E FG FGA FG FGA FT FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO S
14 Graham, Josh 2 4 0 0 1 3 2 0 2 5 5 3 1 1
20 Schoening, Matt 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 3
22 Neuman, Ryan 0 1 1 1 1 3 0 1 1 3 4 0 3 4
32 Littlefield, Jason 5 11 0 0 2 4 3 5 8 1 12 0 0 1
34 Schuh, Paul 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 1 0
40 Wudstrack, Jamie 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
42 Desrochers, Nick 2 5 3 4 2 4 1 3 4 2 15 1 1 2
44 Breaker, Jason 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
50 Reinert, Steve 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0
52 Tiutczenko, Randy 5 6 0 0 2 3 1 5 6 4 12 2 3 0
TEAM........................................
TOTALS 14 30 4 5 8 17 9 14 23 23 48 6 10 11
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 14-24 .583 2nd Half: 4-11 .364 Game: .514
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 4- 5 .800 2nd Half: 0- 0 .000 Game: .800
F Throw % 1st Half: 0- 1 .000 2nd Half: 8-16 .500 Game: .471
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HOME: Almond-Bancroft (1-4), (1-2)
2PT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
No. N A M E FG FGA FG FGA FT FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO S
05 Cumming, Matt 0 1 0 0 2 2 0 0 0 4 2 0 0 1
10 Newby, Chad 2 10 1 2 3 4 2 2 4 5 10 2 2 3
20 Leary, Chris 1 3 0 2 0 0 2 0 2 0 2 0 0 1
23 Nickel, Steve 2 6 1 4 2 4 2 1 3 4 9 3 0 5
24 Dernbach, Kent 0 3 1 8 5 9 1 2 3 1 8 0 0 0
30 Schultz, Blake 1 3 0 0 1 1 1 2 3 2 3 0 1 0
40 Warner, Brian 1 1 0 0 2 3 1 1 2 1 4 0 0 0
45 Dernbach, Trevor 2 5 0 0 1 2 0 1 1 2 5 0 2 3
55 Gutke, Kip 0 0 0 0 2 2 1 0 1 1 2 0 1 0
TEAM........................................
TOTALS 9 32 3 17 18 27 10 9 19 20 45 5 6 13
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 6-24 .250 2nd Half: 6-24 .250 Game: .250
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 1- 8 .125 2nd Half: 2- 9 .222 Game: .176
F Throw % 1st Half: 6-13 .462 2nd Half: 12-14 .857 Game: .667
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OFFICIALS: Dave Paterson, Marshall Grove
TECHNICAL FOULS:
Almond-Bancroft - none
Tigerton - none
SCORE BY PERIODS: 1st 2nd 3rd 4th TOTAL Tigerton 21 11 7 9 48 Almond-Bancroft 8 11 9 17 45
