Goodman-Pembine's Hagan Braaten (35) battles for the basketball with Newman Catholic's Elliot Samuels (15) and Hadyn McKeough (32) on Saturday in Pembine, Wis. (Burt Angeli/The Daily News Photo)

PEMBINE, Wis. — A season scoring high wasn’t enough for Goodman-Pembine on Saturday.

Braxton Resch scored 32 points and Newman Catholic defeated the Patriots 90-62 in non-conference boys basketball. The senior guard hit five of the Wausau school’s 10 three-pointers.

“It’s hard to find positives in a loss but I feel we made some strides,” said Patriots coach John Swick. “There’s still plenty to work on but we’re starting to play a more complete game now. I am so pleased to see the way the guys just keep battling right to the end.”

The Patriots (2-12) trailed by 13 points at halftime and cut the margin to eight with eight minutes to go. But they missed a break-away layup and the Cardinals (5-12) answered with a bucket for a 10-point cushion.

“We’re still missing a lot of easy shots,” Swick said. “That’s really been our MO this year. We’ve easily left 20-30 points on the floor every night.

“We’ve talked about the importance of each possession all the time. That’s what happens when you get those easy misses and they convert it.”

Noah Suther led the Patriots with 20 points. The senior guard had four triples. Hagan Braaten chipped in 15 points and Wyatt Marcy had 10.

“Overall, I’m pretty pleased,” Swick said. “This is back-to-back games where we’ve put together two solid halves. That’s kind of been our struggle for the past couple weeks.”

Ben Bates, averaging 7 points per game prior to Saturday, added 18 for the Cardinals. Hadyn McKeough had 13.

Newman, a nemesis of area Wisconsin schools in volleyball and girls basketball state tournaments, won a second straight boys basketball game after losing seven in a row.

The Patriots face Crandon on Tuesday at Goodman.

Newman defeated GP 39-29 in the junior varsity game. Jared Knutson led the Patriots with 11.

Newman Catholic 45  45 — 90

Goodman-Pembine   32  30  — 62

NEWMAN: Leisher 2, Resch 32, Kalafice  8, Samiel 2, Nicklaus 6, Bollmann 6, Kimball 1. Bates 18, McKeough 13, Brill 2. FT: 21-21. F: 17. 3PT: Resch 5, McKeough 3, Kalafice 1, Nicklaus 1.

GOODMAN-PEMBINE: Gilbert 2, Suther 20, Metras 6, Heath 1, Morrison 6, Marcy 10, Metras 2, Braaten 15. FT: 8-14. F: 20. 3PT: Suther 4.