Springs blows past Oakfield

No plays off.

That was the message from coach Kyle Krueger in practice to his St. Mary's Springs basketball team of late heading into the challenging past week of games.

Springs capped off a perfect stretch with a dominating 72-36 nonconference home win against Oakfield on Saturday night.

"Difficult stretch with one of them on the road," Krueger said. "I like where we're at, we can still get better.

"What I maybe said [to the team] was, 'Hey, you can't rest when you're on defense because you've got to work. We like to run, so you can't rest on offense, so when you get tired you've got to rest on the bench."

The Ledgers (11-3) suffocated a usually potent Oakfield offense that had been averaging 64.2 points per game and held them to just four 2-point field goals.

Springs started the game on a 16-5 run and later used a 19-6 run to bust the game open.

Sophomore Ben Baker, who was the primary defender to guard Oakfield's star guard Mitchell Moser, said the message was to speed the Oaks (8-5) up.

"Tempo," Baker said. "[Krueger] told us to push the ball, which they're not used to and because of that, we caught them quickly and they had a lot of turnovers."

Springs was able to sustain that pace using its depth, including two players that saw their first action of the season returning from injury in junior Jack Holzmann and senior Jack Vander Sanden.

Holzmann got into the game in the first half. On his first possession back, he got a steal on the defensive end and then scored on the ensuing possession. Vander Sanden got time in the second half and scored on his second possession back.

Krueger said the return of the two will not only help the Ledgers in games, but also in practice.

"They've both been cleared," Krueger said. "We're going to have to ease them in, but where that's going to help us, I think, the most is at practice because we've had several days this year where we haven't had 10 varsity guys healthy, so now we're going to be able to get after it more."

There were 12 different Ledgers that scored in the game.

Emmitt Huhn led Springs with 17 points. He nearly blew the roof off Hutter Gymnasium when he got loose on back-to-back possessions and threw down thunderous dunks.

Huhn attempted two early 3-pointers before settling in down low and dominating Oakfield in the paint.

Huhn and fellow senior Noah Moul used their size to their advantage once again. Moul scored 13 and imposed his will physically inside.

The margin could have been worse, but Oakfield made seven 3s and went 7-for-8 from the line.

Krueger said his team was locked in on the defensive end and he hopes his team takes that effort and carries it forward.

"We still have several steps we can take to get better and one of them is just the consistent effort defensively," Krueger said. "If we can bring the same energy that we bring tonight all the time, we'll get better."

Over the course of eight days, Springs beat Laconia on the road and Lomira and Oakfield at home. Those teams have a combined record of 28-10; Oakfield leads the Trailways East.

"Coach tells us in practice that we can't take breaks [on the floor]," Baker said. "Because of that, he said we put games [like this] on the schedule so then it gets us ready for playoffs."