Bulldogs drop contest against Buffaloes and Mounders

ELK MOUND/MONDOVI — The Boyceville boys’ basketball team has been on a set of away games recently with this past week in Mondovi on Thursday and Elk Mound on Saturday.

Shut out by Mounders

Boyceville boys’ basketball coach Jay Lagerstrom was probably hoping they could catch the Elk Mound team in a bit of a letdown after an emotional win over Colfax two days earlier. But things didn’t work out that way as the Mounders jumped all over the Bulldogs early on and finished up with a 68-46 win in a Saturday afternoon game Jan. 12.

Boyceville scored just six points in the first quarter on two buckets by Michael Lagerstrom and another from Brady Schutts while the Mounders came up with 20 in part by four triples to put the Bulldogs in a hole. But Boyceville showed they can find the hoop from long range themselves in the second quarter when Justin Schulz started things off with a trey. After an Elk Mound bucket, Brady Schutts dropped in a deuce to get the score to 22-11 and the teams continued to trade points as the Mounders’ Dakota Tarnow hit a triple, Mitch Leach of Boyceville added a bucket and Tarnow scored from the paint for a 27-13 Mounder lead.

Things got interesting on the Boyceville end as Jordan Kuhn, one of the smallest guys on the court, canned a pair of triples, the second from downtown Elk Mound (if there is a downtown in Elk Mound) to get his team within eight points. The Mounders responded with five points on two free throws and a long ball of their own, but Kuhn wasn’t done yet as he drained another triple, and with a basket to finish off the quarter by Ryan Williams,  Boyceville was still within reach as they went into the break down by eight at 32-24.

But the Bulldog defenders lost track of Nick Heit who came out to start the third quarter for the Mounders with a trey, which was countered by one from Schutts. Heit responded with another long ball however, and with a free toss by Schutts and a Williams jumper, Boyceville was down by 12 at 42-30. But a seven point Mounder run took the wind out of the Bulldogs’ sails before Lagerstrom stopped it with a pair of free tosses and the teams went into the final quarter with Elk Mound up 51-32.

Lagerstrom immediately hit his first trey of the game to keep things interesting and although Boyceville came up with 11 more points, their defense just couldn’t deal with the depth of the athletic Mounders while they were short handed themselves with a couple of players gone for an academic competition. Tyler Draeger and Jake McIntyre came up with buckets late in the quarter and Schutts finished off the Boyceville scoring with a pair of free throws.

Coach Lagerstrom, with his leg in a brace due to an ice fishing incident, was happy with the effort his team gave against the undefeated Mounders.

“We had some good looks at the basket and put down some big shots,” he said. “We got beat up on the boards and had just 10 rebounds for the game. We just couldn’t match up with their height and depth. We are nearing the end of an eight game road stand and we still have some questions on our line up. But we are working at getting better for the last half of the season,” he added.

The Bulldogs finished with balanced scoring as Schutts finished with 10 points and Lagerstrom, Kuhn and Williams all had nine. As a team,they came up with six triples and were six of nine from the foul line.

Thursday’s road loss

Thursday night’s game did not end in the Bulldog’s favor as they lost to the Buffaloes 54-42. The Buffaloes carried the lead throughout the entire game with the score at 19-13 in the first quarter, 30-20 in the second and 42-29 in the third.

Mondovi is currently 5-3 in the DSC under conference leaders Elk Mound, Elmwood and Colfax.

“Probably the biggest concern we are having right now is our inability to get any offensive rebounds. We need to get some scores off the glass and it just isn’t happening,” said coach Jay Lagerstrom.

Defensively, both teams played a well-rounded basketball game with the Bulldogs standing on the free throw line just two times and the Buffaloes a total of six times.

The leading shooter for the Bulldogs was Lagerstrom with 13 points from three deuces, two triples and one free throw. Kuhn was not too far behind with 11 points from one deuce and three triples. Also scoring were Schutts with eight points, Williams with six points and Matt Leach and Mitch Leach each had two points.

The Bulldogs have a break in play until they resume on Thursday for a non-conference game in New Auburn. They will then play their first home game in almost a month on Monday against Cornell.