Mounders continue to roll

After their highly emotional win over Colfax last Thursday night, Elk Mound boys’ basketball coach Chris Hahn was a little worried his team might have a let down when they hosted an always hustling Boyceville Bulldog team in an afternoon game Saturday, Jan. 12.

Although his team didn’t play as well as Hahn thought they should have, the Mounders used a big 20-6 first quarter advantage to take control of things and finished with a 68-46 win, leaving them as the only unbeaten team in the conference at 8-0 (12-0 overall).

The Mounders used their ability to shoot from long range early on as Nick Heit continued with the hot hand, connecting twice and Travis Nelson and Dakota Tarnow both added treys to help take that early lead.

But Boyceville exploded for 18 second quarter points as the Mounders’ defense lost track of the Bulldog three point shooters and allowed them to hit four shots from behind the arc. Jordan Kuhn was responsible for three straight and the Elk Mound lead was cut to eight points at 32-24 at the break.

Not to worry however, as coach Hahn gave his team a little pep talk and the Mounders stormed out of the locker room with Heit draining back to back triples to take the wind out of the Bulldogs sails. Dexter Curry made his presence known in the paint with three straight buckets, Zac Doll bounced back after missing the Colfax game due to an illness with five more points on two drives and a free toss and Ryan Bridges topped off the third quarter with a shot underneath for a 51-32 Mounder lead.

Several bench players got into the scoring action in the final quarter as Austin Hanson hit a short jumper and a pair of free throws, Logan Strom scored from close range and Hunter Kohls canned a three ball before Bridges finished off the Mounder scoring with another shot from underneath.

“We didn’t play very well after the first quarter,” Hahn said. “We were slow on our defensive rotations and didn’t play very well at times. We need to be more consistent and play hard, regardless of who we are playing.”

10 Elk Mound players scored points with three in double figures including Heit with 14, Doll with 11 and Curry with 10. The teams combined for 15 triples with the Mounders hitting nine of them.

ELK MOUND (68) Heit 4-2-2-14, Doll 3-4-5-11, Curry 5-0-0-10, Tarnow 3-0-0-8, Nelson 3-0-0-7, Bridges 2-1-2-5, Hanson 1-2-4-4, H. Dicus 2-0-0-4, Kohls 1-0-0-3, Strom 1-0-0-2

BOYCEVILLE (46) B. Schutts 3-3-4-10, M. Lagerstrom 3-2-2-9, Kuhn 3-0-0-9, R. Williams 4-1-2-9, J. Schultz 1-1-3-3, M. Leach 1-0-1-2, T. Draeger 1-0-0-2, J. McIntyre 1-0-0-2

THREE POINTERS: Heit 4, Kuhn 3, Tarnow 2, Doll 1, Kohls 1, Nelson 1, Lagerstrom 1, Schutts 1, Schultz 1