The Britton-Hecla boys basketball team dropped a pair of decisions in the past week, falling to Waubay-Summit 56-50 on Thursday and to Clark-Willow Lake 66-36 last week Tuesday.
Coach Troy Knecht’s club, now 9-8, was scheduled to host Waverly-South Shore on Monday but that game was postponed to this Thursday (JV boys, girls 5 p.m., varsity girls, varsity boys to follow). Last night Tuesday the Braves hosted Hamlin. B-H will wrap up regular season play by hosting Groton Area on Friday in a twin bill with the girls’ squad (JV boys, JV girls 5 p.m., varsity girls, varsity boys to follow).
Region 1A tournament play begins on Tuesday, March 4.
Waubay-Summit 56
Britton-Hecla 50
Britton-Hecla cut an 11-point deficit to six after three quarters but fell short against Waubay-Summit.
The Braves got off to a very slow start, trailing 13-2 at the first quarter break, and then played the hosts on even terms in the second period and were behind 24-13 at the half. Knecht’s crew outscored W-S 14-9 in the third stanza to cut the margin to six.
“We came out really slow in this one,” Knecht noted. “Not much energy and the shots weren’t going in. We got some great minutes from our bench in the second quarter that got us back in it. Shooting again for us was down around 30% which makes it tough to win, but the boys played hard over quarters two, three, and four and gave themselves a chance to win. Starting games has been our biggest problem this year. That, and getting out of position on defense. Both of these things go back to being prepared and ready to play. I’m hoping we can improve on both of these over the last three games.”
Britton-Hecla actually had four more field goals that Waubay-Summit, but the home team had 10 treys and scored seven more points at the charity stripe. Will Richter had a big game with 20 points and six rebounds for the Braves and Chaz Vietor added nine points and 12 rebounds. Graham Fosness added seven rebounds.
BRITTON-HECLA: Will Richter 7 3-4 20, Graham Fosness 1 0-0 3, Chaz Vietor 4 1-3 9, Jordyn McGregor 2 0-0 4, Jaxon Zuehlke 1 1-2 3, Ben Folkman 1 0-0 2, Mitch Burger 0 2-2 2, Dan Person 2 3-6 7. Totals 18 11-18 50.
WAUBAY-SUMMIT: Dylan Rumpza 0 2-4 2, Tigh Gaikowski 2 8-11 12, Camden Neilan 5 1-2 16, Traveion Neilan 6 2-2 19, Hogan Hlavacek 1 5-7 7. Totals 14 18-26 56.
BH (9-8) 2 13 27 50
WS (11-7) 13 24 33 56
3-point goals – Richter 3, Fosness; C. Neilan 5, T. Neilan 5. Fouled out – Fosness, Person. Total fouls – BH 22, WS 16.
Clark-Willow Lake 66
Britton-Hecla 36
Clark-Willow Lake went on a 33-10 run in the first 12 minutes of the game and the Braves were never able to mount a challenge to the 14-3 Cyclones.
The visitors led 9-0 before Will Richter canned a trey at the 4:14 mark of the opening quarter and C-WL led 18-7 at the break. Then the Cyclones ripped off a 13-0 run, thanks to a trio of treys and led 39-17 at halftime. B-H actually won the third quarter by a point and trailed 50-29, but C-WL extended the margin in the final stanza.
“Clark-Willow Lake is a really good team,” said Knecht. “They’ve got size, athletic ability and just a good basketball pedigree. I was hoping we would challenge them early in the game as we have in the past but for whatever reason we couldn’t get anything going in the first quarter. We were without Chaz (Vietor), and he’s important to us, but I still felt like we could compete. Unfortunately we shot very poorly and against the top tier teams you’ve got to put the ball in the hole or you’ll get disposed of quickly. Other than a fairly strong third quarter this was a bad game for us.”
Richter led the Braves with 15 points. Graham Fosness pulled down seven rebounds and Person had five boards, two assists, and a pair of steals. The Braves were a frigid 22% from the field, while the Cyclones hit 49% of their tries, and BH-H lost the board battle 44-27.
CLARK-WILLOW LAKE: Emmerson Larson 12 1-1 28, Will Hovde 1 0-0 2, Chris Bevers 3 0-0 8, Bo Begeman 6 1-2 13, Miles Olson 2 0-0 6, Jakob Steen 1 0-0 2, Griffin Musser 1 1-2 3, Sullivan Felberg 2 0-0 4. Totals 28-57 3-5 66.
BRITTON-HECLA: Will Richter 5 2-4 15, Mitchell Burger 0 1-2 1, Nathan Folkman 0 1-2 1, Graham Fosness 3 1-2 8, Daniel Person 2 3-3 7, Jaxon Zuehlke 1 2-4 4. Totals 11-51 10-17 36.
CWL (14-3) 18 39 50 66
BH (9-7) 7 17 29 36
3-point goals – Larson 3, Bevers 2, Olson 2; Richter 3, Fosness. Fouled out – Bevers. Total fouls – CWL 16, BH 9.
