Toppers stuffed by Raiders at home; regain win at Central

By Kelsie Hoitomt

The Glenwood City boys’ basketball team played two games this week, one at home against Elmwood on Thursday and then at St. Croix Central Saturday afternoon.

Thursday night’s game against the 6-1 conference Raiders was a bust as the Toppers lost 66-48 after several turnovers gave Elmwood plenty of opportunities to score.

The Raiders only had a one to three point lead over the Hilltoppers until late in the second quarter when things seemed to fall apart and the ball got handed over too many times.

The first quarter was a tight race with the score at 14-13 in the Raiders favor. With five minutes left in the second quarter, the Toppers were down 20-17, but that quickly changed as the Raiders scored 23 points and the quarter ended with the Raiders up 37-24.

From that point on the Raider’s continued to cause turnovers and score baskets and the Toppers just were not able to catch up.

Credit does go out to the Hilltoppers for their strong defensive play as they were able to apply pressure to the Raiders and keep them from charging the basket more than they could have.

There was a fairly significant difference in fouls as well as the Raiders had 16 chances at the free throw line compared to the Toppers who had just two. The Raiders were successful with nine baskets and the Toppers were 100 percent at the line.

It was a team effort on scoring for the Toppers as Marcus Kadinger had nine points including one triple, Tyler Johnson had eight points, Richard Ross had seven points including one triple, Todd Petersen, Nick Mrdutt and Matt Schouten each had six points and Chris Wagner, Jake Hierlmeier and Michael Johnson each had two points.

The tables turned at the game last Saturday against St. Croix Central with the Toppers getting the 51-32 win over the Panthers.

The game was decided in the second and third quarters after the Toppers scored ten points in the second and 19 in the third while they held the Panthers to a combined seven points in those quarters.

The game started out with the Toppers slightly ahead 16-14 in the first, but then they broke away and the scores were 26-14 at the half and 45-19 in the third.

Mrdutt blew up the court for the Toppers with 17 points scored from seven deuces and three free throws; ten of those points were scored in the first quarter alone.

The rest of the points were scored from Schouten with ten, Ross with eight, Nueske with seven, Tyler Johnson with four, Hierlmeier with three, Wagner had a point and Petersen who fouled out also had a point.

As a team, the Toppers did not have their best performance at the free throw line with only ten of their 20 attempts making it through the net. The Panthers were just 50 percent at the line as well with seven of their 14 attempts making it.

The Hilltoppers played Tuesday night at home against Spring Valley and will play at Mondovi on Friday night and then at home Saturday afternoon against Osseo-Fairchild at 3:00 p.m.