Mounder boys drop close one to SCC, slide past Mondovi

It might be a good thing St. Croix Central moved out of the Dunn-St. Croix Conference or so the Elk Mound boys might think. After holding a lead through most of the game played Dec. 7 in Hammond, the Mounders let the lead slip away and lost 65-62. Three days later they hosted Mondovi and after leading by as much as 17 points, the Mounders allowed the Buffaloes to tie the score before they came back to take a 58-54 win.

St. Croix Central

The Mounders were scoring from inside and outside in the first half as Dane Lew connected from downtown three times while Cole Tyman hit from close range four times and Ben Lambele added three deuces and a free toss to allow Elk Mound to take a slim 37-36 lead at halftime.

Lew, Tyman and Chandler Schreiber all drained a triple in the second half while Lambele added six points from the paint to go with a pair of free shots and the two teams battled until the end. Elk Mound had a number of turnovers and missed opportunities but still had a chance late in the game to pull out a win but their effort fell a little short.

“We made too many mistakes to get the win,” Mounder coach Chris Hahn said. “We showed some of our youthfulness throughout the contest and we need to learn from our mistakes and improve if we want to win our future games. Ben Lambele gave us some great minutes and he is learning to be more assertive on offense but we need to see that same level of effort on defense. He is such a good athlete he can cause a lot of problems at the top of our 1-3-1- zone and we need him to play with a high level of energy each night,” he added.

Three Mounders scored in double figures including Lambele with 17 and Tyman and Lew both with 15.

ST. CROIX CENTRAL (65) T. Nelson 9-1-2-20, C. Johnson 9-0-0-17, E. Nielson 4-0-0-9, O. Schwechler 3-2-3-9, J. Pribnow 3-0-0-6, C. Nelson 2-0-0-4

ELK MOUND (62) Lambele 7-3-3-17, Lew 5-1-2-15, Tyman 7-0-0-15, C. Svee 2-0-0-4, B. Bohl 2-0-0-4, Schreiber 1-0-0-3, C. Pritchard 0-2-4-2, B. Redwine 0-2-4-2

THREE POINTERS: Lew 4, Johnson 2, Tyman 1, Schreiber 1, Neilson 1, T. Nelson 1, Schwechler 1

Mondovi

Dylan Black started the Elk Mound scoring off with a bang, knocking down a triple and Lew canned his first of four triples of the half to help the Mounders take a 32-21 lead into the intermission. They slowly began to pull away and maintained a double digit lead with around nine minutes to play. The Buffaloes, who were picked by many to be a contender for a conference title, switched from a zone defense to a man to man and the Mounders struggled to get shots off for the next several minutes. Mondovi pulled to within four points at 48-44 with seven minutes left before Alex Hollister came up with a steal and dished to Brandon Bohl for a layup. The Buffaloes responded with a trey by Greg Poeschel however, and the Elk Mound lead was at 50-47. Suddenly,  with 3:20 left it was all knotted up at 54-54 but Lew found an opening and slithered through the lane for a layup and a two point lead. The Mounders committed their seventh foul and sent the Buffalo player to the line, but the free throw was missed and Elk Mound snared the rebound. With two minutes left, Elk Mound did some weaving with the ball and took over a minute off the clock, and Mondovi, who had only five team fouls at this point, had to commit two quick ones. The strategy worked temporarily as the Mounders missed a free throw, but Mondovi did the same when they went to the line a few seconds later. Colin Svee snared the rebound and with 22 seconds left, Lew, who is normally on the other end of really long passes during the football season, got behind his defender and took the ball on a court length pass to the hoop for a bucket and sealed the win with six seconds left.

“We shot the ball well in the first half with Lew hitting from behind the arc while Svee was great inside for us,” Hahn said. “They both came up with huge plays on both ends of the court throughout the game. When we lost our big lead, our kids didn’t panic and stayed together and found a way to win against a very good team,” he added.

Lew was the only Mounder to finish in double digits in scoring with a career high 21 points that included five triples. Free throws were a problem for both teams as Elk Mound was just 4 of 12 from the stripe and Mondovi was 4 of 16. Elk Mound connected for 10 triples  and Mondovi came up with eight in the contest.

ELK MOUND (58) Lew 8-0-0-21, Lambele 3-2-4-8, Svee 3-0-1-6, Black 2-0-0-6, Bohl 2-1-2-6, Tyman 2-1-5-6, Schreiber 2-0-0-5

MONDOVI (54) C. Kamla 6-0-2-17, Poeschel 5-2-5-14, B. Purdy 6-1-5-14, B. Becker 3-0-0-6, S. Van Roo 1-1-3-3

THREE POINTERS: Lew 5, Kamla 5, Black 2, Poeschel 2, Bohl 1, Tyman 1, Schreiber 1, Purdy 1