Crickets win defensive struggle over Cardinals
Eric Reetz came off the Crickets bench and sparked Fall Creek to a 42-30 nonconference win at Eleva-Strum Tuesday, Jan. 6.
The 6-foot-1-inch senior scored eight points and grabbed five rebounds against the Cardinals. Braden Walbeck led the team with 13 points followed by Matt Anderson with 11. Anderson snatched 10 rebounds, while Folkers had nine.
Both teams came into the game with a loss apiece. The Cardinals were off to a 7-1 start and the Crickets now 5-1. Fall Creek had not played since Dec. 19 when they beat Stanley-Boyd on the road by the score of 62-33. They had an 18-day layoff and in the first period, even though they led 10-9, the Crickets committed seven turnovers.
The Cards scrappy defense gave the Crickets trouble getting to the basket.
Fall Creek found their legs a bit in the second period and cut down on turnovers as they moved the ball much better and went to halftime with a 23-16 advantage. Neither team found it easy to score.
In the second half, Fall Creek still played solidly on the defensive end of the floor. They limited the hometown Cards to 14 total points. Even though they scored only 19 themselves, it was enough to post their sixth win on the season.
Fall Creek had built the lead to a 42-25 margin with under two minutes remaining in the game when they missed their last five free throws in the final minute of play. High scoring Caleub Watkins from Eleva-Strum made the Crickets pay for it with five quick points to narrow the final margin of victory. He led all scorers with 16.
Fall Creek went just 7-14 from the freethrow line for the game, while E-S made 5-6 attempts from the stripe.
The Crickets bounced back nicely as they beat Bloomer (6-3) at home 57-44 on Saturday. They led the game from start to finish building as much as a 16-point lead late in the 4th period.
The Blackhawks, from the heart of the North Conference, did trim the 11-point halftime margin to just five points in the third. However, the Crickets quickly turned the tables and built the double-digit lead and never let the Hawks back into the game.
The win gave the Crickets their sixth win on the season against two losses. They fell the day before to Altoona in a hard fought contest.
The Crickets shot just 31 percent from the field and lost 55-50.
Fall Creek could not find the range anywhere. They went 6-28 from behind the 3-point line and just 4-10 from the free throw line in a very tough loss.
Walbeck did score 20 points in the contest at Altoona and Anderson finished with 14 points and 14 rebounds, but it was not enough to overcome the Rails. Even with poor shooting, the Crickets had two attempts to tie the game in the last 15 seconds of the game, but could not find the range, the last coming with just four ticks on the clock.
Against the Blawkhawks, Anderson had 26 points and 11 rebounds. He was followed by Brayton Meyer who added nine points and four steals. Sawyer Rubeck followed with six while Walbeck, Reetz, Devin Kinsella and Folkers all added four apiece to the Cricket attack. The team shot much better than their game against Altoona as they went 48 percent from the field, yet still only connected on 9-16 charity shots.
The Crickets will next travel to Cadott to tangle with the Hornets on Thursday, Jan. 15 with tip-off set for 7:30 p.m.
