By Mike Ramczyk
Sports Editor
WATERFORD – Friday was a night of celebration for the Waterford Wolverines.
Students and fans wore “Coaches vs. Cancer” T-shirts in honor of senior guard Josh Kurth, who recently overcame non-Hodgkins Lymphoma.
A large, warm ovation for Kurth echoed throughout the Waterford Union High School gymnasium moments before his team’s Southern Lakes Conference first-place battle with Union Grove.
Unfortunately for the Waterford faithful, the noise quickly turned to silence thanks to Andrew Kazikowski and the Broncos.
Kazikowski was lights out in the first half, knocking down five 3-pointers and helping the Grove build a 20-point lead by the second quarter. Waterford never got anything going offensively, and the Broncos cruised to a 58-30 victory.
The Broncos’ dominance of the Wolverines made a statement that it’s Union Grove’s conference to lose.
The Grove improved to 7-1 in the SLC and 13-3 overall. Waterford dropped to 7-7 overall and 6-3 in the SLC.
With a 55-50 victory Friday against Delavan-Darien, Wilmot is now 6-2 in the SLC, a game out of first.
For the game, the Grove buried nine triples, six in the first half. The Broncos went up 36-15 at halftime. Not only did the Broncos’ full-court press cause Waterford fits, nothing was falling for the Wolverines.
Union Grove played conservatively in the second half offensively but kept up the pressure defensively.
The blowout win was the fourth straight for Union Grove, which travels to Burlington (6-3 SLC) in another key SLC tilt.
Kazikowski finished with 18 points on six triples.
Waterford coach Mickey Mala said Union Grove was simply better than Waterford Friday night.
“We got beat by a team that was better at every position tonight,” he said. “Kazikowski got hot, but a lot of it had to do with us not closing out and not finding the open shooter. Their pressure bothered us. We were a little shell-shocked early, and we couldn’t bounce back. They completely took us out of everything we wanted to do.”
Alex Hale and Grant Beck each added 10 points for the Broncos.
Check out Friday’s Waterford Post and Westine Report for more on this game along with an in-depth feature on Kurth and his battle with cancer.
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