By City Times staff

WISCONSIN RAPIDS – The Port Edwards boys basketball team took this year’s Cranberry Classic boys title, in the annual tournament held Nov. 29-30 at Assumption High School.

The start of the tournament saw a couple of close games.

Port Edwards first snuck by Marshfield Columbus Catholic, 70-68.

Quinton Tranel scored 34 points for Port Edwards. Tom Nystrom had 23 points for Columbus, while Wyatt Draxler added 18.

That game was followed by a Nekoosa win over Assumption, 56-55, in overtime.

The game was back and forth from the start. Nekoosa was up 23-22 at halftime and 43-37 later in the second half.

Assumption came back and pushed the game into overtime at 50 each. Damek Walker made the game winning free throw, with three seconds remaining, for Nekoosa to go ahead by one.

John Barten led Nekoosa with 17, while Jace Lobner had 16. Bryson Galbreath led Assumption with 17, while Alec Sullivan had 14.

Nekoosa then faced Port Edwards in the championship round on Saturday night, and was up 18 to 15 at half. While both teams played hard defense, Nekoosa got into foul trouble late in the game and lost 49-36.

Lead scorers for Nekoosa on Saturday were: Barten with 11, and Lobner with eight. Tranel was high for Port, with 18, while David Gibbs added 17.