It was a week of contrasts for the Britton-Hecla boys basketball team as the Braves trounced Northwestern 55-38 on Monday, battled a 12-1 Leola-Frederick squad before losing 62-51 last week Tuesday, but had some tough sledding against a red-hot Aberdeen Roncalli squad on Thursday, losing a 76-35 blowout.
The Braves, now 8-5, played at Sisseton last night Tuesday. Friday they play at Langford Area in a twin bill with the girls squad (JV boys 4 p.m., JV girls, varsity boys, varsity girls to follow), and Tuesday Clark-Willow Lake comes to town for a doubleheader (JV boys, JV girls 5 p.m., varsity girls, varsity boys to follow).
Britton-Hecla 55
Northwestern 38
Britton-Hecla blew open a tight contest with a 26-point fourth quarter to get back on the win track.
The Braves led by two at the first quarter break and five at the end of the second and third stanzas before putting together a 26-4 fourth quarter run.
“It was good to get back on the court after the Roncalli loss,” said B-H coach Troy Knecht. “Overall we played a very good defensive game, especially in the second half. In the first half Northwestern was getting inside of our defense with some good interior entries and then complimentary cuts. The boys did a good job of making the adjustments we talked about at half time to take those things away and it led to them having a very tough second half.
“Offensively we were good but not great. We are still looking for that night when we get a few more shots to go down. We are definitely an improved scoring team over past years, but we still have room to improve. Most of that is solved in the off-season but I believe confidence has a lot to do with it. We know what these guys are capable of, they just need to make it happen. It was a nice win for us in a game we needed to get.”
Jaxon Zuehlke led a balanced attack with 13 points, Daniel Person added 12, and Will Richter and Chaz Vietor both notched 10.
BRITTON-HECLA: Will Richter 5 0-0 10, Graham Fosness 1 1-4 3, Daniel Person 5 0-2 12, Jordyn McGregor 1 1-4 3, Jaxon Zuehlke 6 1-5 13, Jack Teveldal 1 0-0 2, Mitchell Burger 1 0-0 2, Chaz Vietor 4 2-2 10. Totals 24 5-17 55.
NORTHWESTERN: Talon Miller 2 0-0 4, Jack Hansen 2 2-2 6, Jarren Haven 2 0-0 4, Dallas Stoltenberg 6 0-0 12, Carson Ewalt 2 0-0 5, William Clemens 0 2-4 2, Ty Boekelheide 2 1-2 5. Totals 16 5-8 38.
BH (8-5) 12 30 39 65
NW (4-8) 10 25 34 38
3-point goals – Person 2; Ewalt. Fouled out – Clemens. Total fouls – BH 12, NW 18.
Aberdeen Roncalli 76
Britton-Hecla 35
It was one of those nights when everything Aberdeen Roncalli threw up seemed to go in the basket, and the result was a one-sided victory for the Cavaliers over the Braves.
Just a week earlier the Braves had beaten Warner by 20, a team that had defeated Roncalli, now 6-6, by a point in mid-December. But the Cavaliers laced 13 three-pointers, and even made a shot that was intended to be a pass. Meanwhile, the Braves had trouble finding the basket and were just 7-23 from the charity stripe.
“This was a weird game. I don’t know how else to say it,” said B-H coach Troy Knecht. “We were mentally and physically absent for a lot of this one. I don’t know if Leola-Frederick took it out of us Tuesday or what the reason was, but it was apparent we weren’t operating at a high level.
“Roncalli shot 63% for the game (62% beyond the arc) and we only managed 36%. It’s hard to recover from that. Plus we shot 30% from the free-throw line. Our turnovers were at 11 which is great for us. Typically if you can keep those down and shoot 22 more free throws than your opponent you win. But we just couldn’t recover from their three-point shooting.
“It was the kind of game you just need to turn the page on and move to the next one,” concluded Knecht.. “Our best days are ahead of us.”
Roncalli started fast, jumping out to a 23-7 lead at the first quarter break. Despite missing a bunch of free throws, the Braves hung in the game in quarter two, outscoring the visitors 14-13 to trail 36-21 at intermission. But Roncalli put the game away in the third stanza with a 27-11 run.
Jordyn McGregor led B-H with eight points and Daniel Person added seven. Jaxon Zuehlke grabbed seven rebounds.
ABERDEEN RONCALLI: Jesse Hernandez 7 1-1 21, Aiden Fisher 5 0-0 14, Sam Franks 3 0-0 7, Brody Weinmeister 3 0-0 6, Parker Grieben 2 0-0 4, Cam Olson 5 1-1 11, Austin Fisher 1 0-0 2, Bryson Olson 2 0-0 4, Jackson Lewno 1 0-0 3. Totals 29 2-2 76.
BRITTON-HECLA: Will Richter 2 0-0 4, Graham Fosness 1 2-4 4, Daniel Person 3 1-6 7, Jordyn McGregor 4 0-1 8, Jaxon Zuehlke 0 1-4 1, Ben Folkman 0 0-2 0, Mitchell Burger 1 1-2 3, Nathan Folkman 1 0-0 2, Chaz Vietor 2 2-4 6. Totals 14 7-23 35.
AR (6-6) 23 36 63 76
BH (7-5) 7 21 32 35
3-point goals – Hernandez 6, Aiden Fisher 4, Franks, Larson, Lewno. Fouled out – Grieben. Total fouls – AR 19, BH 4.
Leola-Frederick 62
Britton-Hecla 51
Leola-Frederick exploded for 26 first quarter points and Britton-Hecla was never able to dig out of that hole as the Titans boosted their season mark to 12-1.
The Braves trailed 26-14 after the opening eight minutes but cut that to 34-27 at halftime. Then the hosts outscored B-H 19-10 in the third stanza to go up by 16 and held on in the final quarter.
“This game was lost in about five minutes of basketball. Leola Frederick came out early and blitzed us with their pressure and we didn’t handle it well,” said Knecht. “Once we settled in we had a really good second quarter and got back in the game. The difference in the game really is that they scored 20 points off of our turnovers and they made eight three-pointers to our one - both tough numbers to recover from.
“I was proud of the way we competed and gave ourselves a chance to be in the game with a very talented team,” added the B-H coach. “We just have to find a way to cut our turnovers down and not have mental lapses on defense. If we can clean those things up we will give ourselves a better chance to beat some of these better opponents.”
Graham Fosness and Dan Person led a balanced B-H effort with 11 points, Will Richter added 10, and Chaz Vietor nine. Jaxon Zuehlke pulled down 10 rebounds and Person grabbed five and had four steals. The Braves didn’t have an answer for Leola-Frederick’s Noah Kippley who pumped in 27 counters.
BRITTON-HECLA: Will Richter 4 1-2 10, Graham Fosness 4 3-6 11, Dan Person 4 3-4 11, Jordyn McGregor 3 0-0 6, Jaxon Zuehlke 1 0-2 2, Mitchell Burger 1 0-0 2, Chaz Vietor 4 0-0 9. Totals 21 7-14 51.
LEOLA-FREDERICK: Westyn Thorpe 2 3-4 7, Gavin Nickelson 2 3-4 8, Noah Kippley 10 1-1 27, Milo Sumption 5 2-5 12, Jace Thorpe 1 1-2 3, Lucas Gulbranson 1 0-2 2, Titus Kippley 0 0-2 0, Zander Hoffman 1 0-0 3. Totals 22 10-20 62.
BH (7-4) 14 27 37 51
LF (12-1) 26 34 53 62
3-point goals – Richter, Vietor; Nickelson, N. Kippley 6, Hoffman. Fouled out – LF, Ethan Petrich. Total fouls – BH 19, LF 19.
