Mounders stampede Buffalos, crush Cardinals

The Elk Mound boys continue to roll as they brought their conference record to 5-0 and their overall record to 7-0 as they won a home game over Mondovi 56-40 Dec. 11 and traveled to Spring Valley Dec. 14 to pick up a 65-41 win, leaving them at the top of the conference standings all by themselves.

Mondovi

The Mounders played their best quarter of ball of the season, according to coach Chris Hahn as they pulled out to an 18-5 lead after the first eight minutes of play. Nick Heit was on fire as he hit a pair of triples with a deuce in between to go with a free throw for half of those points. Dexter Curry hit  a couple of buckets while Travis Nelson drained a three pointer and Hunter Dicus scored in the paint for the other nine points.

“We played great defense in the first quarter, didn’t turn the ball over and had great shots each time we brought the ball down the court,” Hahn said. “Heit was able to knock down some big shots that helped us build a lead.”

After holding a 29-15 halftime lead, the Mounders let the Buffaloes climb back to within six points in the third quarter due to carelessness with the ball on their part, but Dicus hit a huge triple to start off the fourth quarter which sparked an 11-0 run for them and sealed the win. Elk Mound’s defense did their part as they held Mondovi to a scant four points in the last eight minutes of play.

Heit was the scoring leader with 19 points including five triples while Dicus added 12. The Mounders were 6 of 10 from the foul line and the Buffaloes were 15 of 25.

ELK MOUND (56) Heit 6-2-4-19, Dicus 5-1-1-12, Curry 4-0-0-8, Z. Doll 2-0-0-5, R, Bridges 1-2-2-4, Nelson 1-0-1-3, A. Hanson 1-0-0-2, D. Tarnow 1-0-0-2, A. Gottschalk 0-1-2-1

MONDOVI (40) Q. Buchholz 2-6-10-10, E. Wolf 3-0-0-6, B. Vetterkind 2-2-5-6, A. Risler 1-2-2-5, I. Scott 1-2-3-4, M. Konitzer 2-0-1-4, E. Palmer 1-1-1-3, T. McLean 0-2-3-2

THREE POINTERS: Heit 5, Doll 1, Nelson 1, Dicus 1, Risler 1

Spring Valley

Nelson came off the bench  and hit four triples for the Mounders, three in the third quarter, to finish with a team high 16 points. Elk Mound again jumped out to an early lead at 9-0 and by holding the Cardinals to just 10 first half points, including  three points in the second quarter, they held a commanding 31-10 lead.

Spring Valley picked things up on the offensive end the second half, but the Mounders continued to find the bottom of the net on a regular basis themselves. Besides Nelson’s three bombs in the third quarter, Heit added one while Ryan Bridges hit a deuce and sank a free throw to go with a basket each from Zac Doll and Dicus, and the Mounders coasted into the final quarter with a 51-26 lead.Curry and Nelson both scored four points in the fourth stanza to help finish off the win.

“We played a good first half of basketball,” coach Hahn said. “We were very efficient in the second quarter. We continue to be very unselfish with the ball. But we are still turning it over too much in the half court and we need to get those turnovers down.”

Besides Nelson, Curry and Dicus also finished in double figures for points as Curry had 13 and Dicus had 10. As a team they were 10 of 13 from the foul line.The Cardinals were led by Zac Webster with 19 points.

ELK MOUND (65) Nelson 5-2-2-16, Curry 6-1-2-13, Dicus 5-0-0-10, Heit 3-0-0-9, Bridges 2-4-6-8, Doll 2-3-3-7, A. Hanson 1-0-0-2

SPRING VALLEY (41) Webster 8-2-4-19, B. Becker 3-2-2-10, T. Rudesill 3-0-2-6, S. Green 1-2-2-4, J. Holmer 1-0-0-2

THREE POINTERS: Nelson 4, Heit 3, Becker 2, Webster 1