Undersized Bulldogs drop contest to Vikings, Cadott
The Boyceville boys basketball team had to deal with a much taller team when they faced off against the Colfax Vikings Dec. 7 in the Colfax gym. With a starting lineup for the Vikings averaging 6’3 compared to the Boyceville lineup average of around 5’10, it wasn’t easy getting inside shots, resulting in Boyceville losing the contest 62-41.
In a rematch of last year’s sectional final, Boyceville jumped out to a 3-0 lead on a Jordan Kuhn three pointer and a Ryan Williams deuce put the score at 5-5 but the Vikings went on a seven point run before Brady Schutts scored on a put back to stop the streak. Kuhn canned another three ball and with a pair of free tosses by Michael Lagerstrom, the Bulldogs were down 20-12 after the first quarter.
Boyceville turned the ball over in their first two possessions against the Vikings press but Kuhn banged in another long ball to get to within seven points at 22-15 partway through the second stanza. A free toss from Mitch Leach and two short range buckets from Lagerstrom were their only other points of the quarter however, and they went into the break down 31-20.
“Their defense didn’t give us many good looks at the basket and caused us to turn the ball over too many times,” Boyceville coach Jay Lagerstrom said. “Those are two factors that make it hard to score points.”
Schutts opened the third quarter with a bucket and Lagerstrom connected with a trey followed by a runner in the lane by Kuhn to get the Bulldogs closer, down 35-27 as they went to a more patient offense. The sharp shooting Vikings slowly began to pull away as three different players drained three pointers before Williams hit from underneath, and the teams headed into the final quarter with Boyceville behind 47-31.
Boyceville had committed their seventh team foul late in the third quarter and the Vikings went to the foul line five times in the final eight minutes, knocking down six of ten shots. The Bulldogs came up with a triple off the backboard by Justin Schulz and single buckets from Kuhn, Williams and Lagerstrom to go with a final free throw from Schutts to end the game with the 21 point loss.
“We tried to hold the ball longer in each possession the second half,” coach Lagerstrom said. “I figured if we could keep it out of the Colfax player’s hands, they couldn’t score. But eventually they got the ball and hit their shots. We gave up too many second shots and they took advantage of it,” he added.
Kuhn led the Bulldogs with 13 points while Lagerstrom added 11. As a team they were four of six from the foul line while Colfax was 11 of 16.
BOYCEVILLE (41) FG-FTM-FTA-PTS: Kuhn 3-0-0-13, Lagerstrom 4-2-2-11, Williams 4-0-0-8, Schutts 2-1-2-5, Schulz 1-0-0-3, Leach 0-1-2-1
COLFAX (62) A. Huss 3-6-6-13, C. Zivcic 5-0-0-13, E. Kiekhafer 3-1-2-9, L. Olson 4-1-2-9, J. Rudi 3-0-2-8, S. DeMoe 3-1-2-7, J. Wait 1-0-0-3
THREE POINTERS: Kuhn 3, Zivcic 3, Rudi 2, Kiekhafer 2, Lagerstrom 1, Schulz 1, Huss 1, Wait 1
Cadott
The Bulldogs appeared to have lost their momentum as they were stuffed by the Cadott Hornets 72-49 last Tuesday night.
The Cloverbelt-West conference Hornets claimed their court from the get go as the first quarter score was 21-6 and half time ended with them ahead 43-16. The score gap continued as the third quarter ended 53-34 and then the final of 72-49.
The Bulldogs’ leading scorer was Michael Lagerstrom with 12 points by two triples, a deuce and four foul shots.
Also scoring was Matt Leach with nine points, Ryan Williams with eight points, Brady Schutts with five points, Zach Klassen and Justin Schulz each with four points, Jake McIntyre had three points and Jordan Kuhn had two points.
As a team the Bulldogs were much improved from the foul line as they had 10 out of 14 foul attempts made.
The Hornets’ leading scorer was Brett McChoeng with 18 points followed by a pair of players with 14 points each.