Elk Mound boys pick up pair of wins

The Elk Mound boys got back on the winning track with a 58-44 home win over Chetek-Weyerhaeuser Feb. 17, then stayed home and returned to conference play, earning a hard fought overtime win against Glenwood City 58-53 a few days later.

Chetek-Weyerhaeuser

After falling behind by as much as 12 points early in the game, the Mounders regrouped from a 13-3 first quarter deficit to lead 26-22 at the intermission. A couple of new players found themselves playing plenty of varsity minutes as Chandler Schreiber made his first varsity start while Ben Lambele came off the bench and played more then half of the game. It was a couple of veterans however, who gave Elk Mound some spark as Dane Lew and Brandon Bohl both connected for a pair of triples to help lead the comeback. Lambele added five points and Justin Erpenbach four with Lew knocking down two free tosses.

Schreiber drained two shots from behind the arc in the third stanza, Erpenbach added a deuce and free throw to go with buckets by Lambele and Lew as the Mounders went into the final quarter up 39-34.

19 fourth quarter points including six from Erpenbach and four from Schreiber put the game away for the Mounders. Schreiber and Lambele both finished with career highs in the scoring department with 11 and nine respectively while Erpenbach led the team with 13, Lew added 11 and Bohl  10.

“We had another slow start and couldn’t get a basket to fall,” Coach Chris Hahn said. “I was proud of the way we responded and continued to play hard. Schreiber and Lambele were very active on defense, got on the floor for loose balls and gave us a spark offensively.”

ELK MOUND (58) Erpenbach 6-1-4-13, Lew 3-3-4-11, Schreiber 4-1-2-11, Bohl 3-2-2-10, Lambele 4-1-3-9, A. Hollister 0-2-4-2, C. Tyman 1-0-0-2

CHEYEK-WEYERHAEUSER (44) D. Williams 4-3-3-14, J. Schaaf 5-3-8-13, V. Martinez 3-0-0-8, Z. Loy 2-1-3-6, D. Davis 1-0-0-3

THREE POINTERS:  Lew 2, Bohl 2, Schreiber 2, Martinez 2, Williams 1, Loy 1, Davis 1

Glenwood City

Before the season started, several coaches in the Dunn-St. Croix conference stated it was a very even conference this year and every win was going to be tough to pick up. After Glenwood City beat Colfax three days earlier to knock them out of the conference lead, it would seem like the Toppers should not have had a problem with the 7-12 Mounders. But after falling behind 23-20 at the half, Elk Mound held the Toppers to seven third quarter points while coming up with 12 of their own, which included eight from Schreiber on two treys and a deuce and four from Noah Zurbuchen on a bucket and two free tosses for a 32-30 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

The Mounders were on target from behind the arc with four treys, two by Lew and one each by Bohl and Cole Tyman who added a deuce. But, Glenwood continued to score themselves with Jake Hierlmeier leading the way with eight points. The result was a 46-46 score after regulation time time came to a close. In overtime, Alex Hollister and Schreiber both scored from close range and clutch free throws sealed the win for Elk Mound as Hollister, who hadn’t been to the line all game, hit three of four freebies, Bohl was two for two and Schreiber tacked on another one to finish off the win.

Schreiber topped his season high with 13 points while Lew and Tyman both finished with 11. The Mounders came up with 10 triples in the game and were eight of 16 from the charity stripe while the Toppers knocked down five treys and were eight of 12 on free throws.

The Mounders will conclude the regular season with road games at Bloomer Feb. 23 and at Mondovi Feb. 26.

ELK MOUND (58) Schreiber 5-1-1-13, Lew (4-0-3-11, Tyman 4-0-0-11, Bohl 2-2-4-8, Hollister 2-3-3-7, Erpenbach 2-0-2-6, Zurbuchen 1-2-3-4

GLENWOOD CITY (53) T. Peterson 7-2-2-17, M. Kadinger 5-3-3-13, Hierlmeier 4-3-3-12, K. Wallace 4-0-0-11

THREE POINTERS: Lew 3, Tyman 3,Wallace 3, Bohl 2, Schreiber 2, Hierlmeier 1, Peterson 1