By Craig Hoffman

Mitch Unger led a Plymouth rally by knocking down four free throws in the final one minute of play as the Panthers kept within a game of the lead in the Eastern Wisconsin Conference with a dramatic 64-61 boys basketball win Thursday evening in New Holstein.

Unger’s final two tosses, with five seconds left, came after a controversial call on New Holstein.

With Plymouth leading 62-61, the Huskies’ Brett Boettcher was fouled. Boettcher sank the first free throw, but was called for a line violation, much to the dismay of the Husky bench and their fans. The call wiped out the free throw and since it was the front half of a bonus situation, he did not get the opportunity to shoot a second time. Unger then nailed his tosses and New Holstein’s Justin Schneider missed a desperation three-point attempt at the buzzer.

Cash, Zipperer lead spurt

New Holstein led most of the contest and Schneider’s put back of a missed NH shot sent the Huskies to the lockerroom at halftime with a 26-25 lead. Charlie Cash and Tyler Zipperer keyed a third quarter charge with four points each and NH opened a 34-28 lead with 4:50 to go. A Sam Cash three-pointer and Boettcher hoop extended the Husky advantage to 39-30 with 3:20 showing on the clock. Unger’s triple to end the third put Plymouth back to within 47-44.

A Greg Rhude three-pointer would knot the game at 55 with 4:15 left to play in the contest and began a series of ties and lead changes.

Unger led Panther scoring, and all scorers, with 25 points. He finished with four three-point field goals and all 25 points came after the first quarter. Jon Criter added 15, ten which came in the first half. Plymouth was solid at the line making 14 of its 17 attempts, all by Unger or Criter with the exception of one attempt from Rhude. Rhude led the defense with four steals and Brent Krueger had three thefts.

Zipperer paced NH scoring with 20 points. Chris Lefeber added 14, eight in the final period. Charlie Cash tossed in ten points. The Huskies made 25 of their 49 field goal attempts for 51.0% while the Panthers were 20 of 54 for 37.0%. Sam Cash had a game-high six assists.

The Panthers are tied with Kiel for second place in the EWC with 5-1 records after Kiel lost 73-68 at first place Waupun (6-0) that same evening. New Holstein falls to 2-4 in the EWC.

The JV game was won by Plymouth 50-35 and the Panthers rolled in the frosh contest 51-19.

Plymouth 64 New Holstein 61

Plymouth (fg ftm-a pf tp): Pat Leick 0 0-0 0 0, Craig Grosshuesch 0 0-0 0 0, Greg Rhude 4 0-0 2 10, Adam Entringer 0 0-0 3 0, Mitch Unger 6 9-10 2 25, Brent Krueger 1 0-0 2 2, Jon Criter 4 5-6 2 15, Myles Dellger 2 0-0 1 6, Forrest Payne 0 0-0 1 0, Brad Hanson 0 0-0 0 0, Spencer Strong 3 0-0 2 6. TOTALS: 20 14-16 15 64.

New Holstein: Brett Boettcher 2 1-5 4 5, Mike Jodar 0 0-0 0 0, Tyler Zipperer 8 4-5 4 20, Sam Cash 1 0-0 4 3, Chris Lefeber 6 2-2 2 14, Justin Schneider 3 0-0 1 7, Erik Hansen 0 0-0 0 0, Travis Steffen 0 0-0 0 0, Charlie Cash 5 2-4 1 12, Brandon Blatz 0 0-0 0 0. TOTALS: 25 9-16 16 61.

Score by Quarters

Plymouth 10 15 19 20 - 64

New Holstein 16 10 21 14 - 61

3-Point Field Goals: Plymouth 10 (Unger 4, Rhude 2, Criter 2, Dellger 2) New Holstein 2 (Sam Cash 1, Schneider 1).