Matt McCarthy/The Daily News Photo Goodman-Pembine’s Boone Larison (25) looks to the basket as Florence’s Kaden Schuls (30) defends in the first half on Tuesday night. Goodman-Pembine’s Josh Wallschlaeger (5) and Florence’s Paul Millan (5) are also in on the play.

BY MATT “SWEETS” McCARTHY

Sports Writer

FLORENCE, Wis. — Points off of transition. That was the focal point for Florence here Tuesday night in defeating Goodman-Pembine 74-49 in Northern Lakes Conference boys basketball.

The Patriots led 4-2 in the early moments of the game, and before anyone could blink, the Bobcats rattled off 11 unanswered points to take a 13-4 lead, with most of those points coming in the transition game.

“Our boys started off with a high defensive intensity right from the get go, which led to our rebounding to outlet passes and a fast point run,” said Florence head coach Bryan Bomberg. “That’s the way we play, we play in spurts which is heading us towards where we want to be late in the season.”

Riley Hixon and Kaden Schuls combined for 40 points, with Hixon recording a game-high 22.

Sophomore Boone Larison led the Patriots with 16 points, with Landon Kalkofen chipping in 11.

The Patriots are a very young team, only having one senior on the roster in Josh Wallschlaeger. Head coach Jeff Zerbst started three sophomores, a senior and a freshman in the game.

“We’re a bit of an up-tempo team ourselves,” he said. “I think the moment was a little too big for our young team tonight. We didn’t take care of the basketball, way too many turnovers. We can’t expect to win that way.

“At points in the game, we kept it close. But with the amount of rebounds they got compared to us, to go along with the turnovers, it was an uphill battle.”

Florence led 36-22 at halftime and came out in the second half and kept the running game going. The Florence student section stayed energized throughout the game, which seemed to keep the Bobcats players energized as well.

Bomberg noted that he was pleased with how patient his team was in half court offense when the Patriots were in a zone defense.

“We usually try to rush too much when the other team is in a zone, we didn’t do that tonight and we haven’t in the last couple of games actually.”

The Patriots did shoot well from the perimeter and scored the vast majority of their points out of half court offensive sets. The tempo of the game was simply too much for the Patriots to sustain for the entire contest.

The Patriots (4-4) host White Lake at Goodman Friday night.

Florence (6-2) travels to Three Lakes on the same night.

The Bobcats won the JV game 44-37.

G-P 22 27 — 49

Florence 36 38 — 74

GOODMAN-PEMBINE: Kessel 4, Wallschlaeger 7, Sheets 5, Kalkofen 11, Larison 16, Wysocki 6. FT: 5-8. F: 10. 3-point FG: Wysocki (2), Sheets, Larison. Fouled Out: None.

FLORENCE: Johnson 7, Hixon 22, Milan 11, Schuls 18, Stoltz 16. Fouled Out: None.