Area boys hoops team meet recent challenges
Tuesday evening, Feb. 10 was night for challenges met by Tri-County Area prep boys basketball teams
Osseo-Fairchild met the challenge from Whitehall for first place in the Large Dairyland Conference. The Thunder easily put down the Norse 69-55 at home, the second game of a doubleheader with girls varsity team also against Whitehall. Drake Vojtik led O-F scoring with 18 points and was named Player of the Game by WHTL 102.3 FM which was broadcasting the doubleheader. The Thunder (15-3 overall) improve to 13-2 in the LDC standings, a full game ahead of the Norse (14-5), with five games to play over the next two and half weeks. starting this Friday, Fen. 13 at Lincoln (12-6) and next Tuesday at home vs. Eleva-Strum. They also split the season series with Whitehall (Prep basketball standings this week are in the print edition of the Tri-County Area Times, on newsstands now!).
O-F met this challenge after stumbling last week Thursday, Feb,. 5 at Cochrane-Fountain City by a score of 54-43, The Pirates held O-F to its lowest point total of the first half, just 11 and were down 13 at halftime which they could not catch-up despite outscoring C-FC 32-30 in the second half. The Pirates (14-5) had three players in double figure led by Tucker Bembenek's 14 points and Aidan Lisowski's 11 points, nine rebounds and two assists. The loss spit the season series between the two teams snapped a five-game winning streak and put OFHS into Tuesday's showdown with the Norse.
Also meeting the call was Fall Creek. The No. 6 ranked Crickets (16-2) went to Eau Claire Regis on Tuesday, Feb. 10 and won decisively over the No. 8 Ramblers 63-56. Four players were in double figures for FC led by Jackson Tangley, 18 points, six assists and three steals; Miles Schmidgall, a double-double 14 points and 13 rebounds; Bryson Elkins, 11 points and Josh Wright, 10 points and five rebounds. These numbers offset Blake Risler's game-high 23 points for Regis and DJ Cooper's 11 points. Fall Creek's win places them alone in first place in Western Cloverbelt Conference and was their ninth win in a row with a pair of road games, Bloomer (3-14) upcoming Thursday, Feb. 12 and Thorp (5-13) on Monday, Feb. 16 before their rematch with the Ramblers (15-4) at home Tuesday, Feb. 17 at 7 p.m. where a win would nail down another Cloverbelt division title.
Speaking of Thorp, the Crickets 53-29 win last week Friday, Jan. 6 at home over the Cardinals was the 400th win for head coach Rick Storlie in his 27th year coaching at Fall Creek. Schmidgall had 12 points, 10 rebounds, four blocks to lead his team while Elkins had 11 points and Tangley scored 10 ponts and made 7 assists. On Monday, Feb. 9, FC won a non-conference game at Augusta 77-51. Schmidgall was again the Crickets leading scorer with 24 points to go with seven rebounds. Teammate Evan Seidling had 12 points and Braylen Prorok had his highest scoring game of the season so far with 10 points. Augusta was led by Bryce Buttke's 14 points and Owen Lee's 12.
For Augusta, the challenge this week in Tuesday, Feb. 10 at home in the first game of a doubleheader with Eleva-Strum was to show how much they've improved since their first meeting with E-S back in December, a 59-45 win for the Cards and how much that improvement has come from both defense and rebounding.
"Since that game we've really went into playing man-to-man defense," AHS head coach Byron King said. "I think its fits the best the personnel we have, the kind of game we want to play and positions ourselves well to get rebounds and do well on the boards. The kids have really bought into it and we've had success from it."
Indeed, from the first match-up with Eleva-Strum the Beavers have gone 5-8 for a 7-13 overall record, their best in several seasons at this point, including a 50-49 win over Central when the Cards last-second three-pointer fell short. The Beavers led 21-19 at halftime and 32-31 early in the second half before opening up a 43-31 lead midway through the half thanks to that defense and rebounding and then holding on as Noah Martinson nearly brought the Redbirds back himself and tallied a game-best 23 points. However only four players scored for E-S, including 10 points each for Bo Windjue and Calvin Barneson. AHS had seven players score led by Buttke's 15 points, 14 for Lee, six for Caleb Kolve and five for Isac Mooney. Augusta has more winnable games coming up, including Friday's tilt vs. Alma/Pepin (5-13) at Pepin and with three straight home games, starting with Tuesday, Feb. 17th's contest vs. Independence/Gilmanton (2-18).
Whenever Eleva-Strum has taken a step towards the .500 mark this season they've always taken a step back this season, and sometimes two or three. That's been the case in losses to Augusta and 24 hours before in a 75-39 non-conference loss at Arcadia. Back on Feb. 5, E-S downed Indy/Gilmanton 73-47 at home. After a close first half where Central (8-11) only led 33-30, the home team outscored I/G in the second half 40-17. Cashton Kulig had a season-high 25 points while Martinson scored 12 as did Windjue. Barneson had nine rebounds and four assists. Eleva-Strum hosts Blair-Taylor (8-9) on Friday, Feb. 13 and is at Osseo-Fairchild next Tuesday, Feb. 17.
