Mounders gouged by G-E-T and stopped by Spring Valley

Playing the number one ranked team in Division 3 on the road turned out to be a disaster as the Elk Mound boys were dumped by the Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau Red Hawks 85-21 Jan. 19.The Mounders returned to conference play three days later, and without some key players able to help due to injuries, Elk Mound lost 61-58 at home against the Spring Valley Cardinals.

G-E-T

The Mounders’ leading scorer Ben Lambele was held to nary a point while second leading scorer Dane Lew wasn’t even in the lineup which is a big reason for the blowout by the Red Hawks who happen to be in the same sectional as Elk Mound. G-E-T has been averaging 81 points a game this year and showed their offensive abilities very early as they outscored the Mounders 54-9 in the first half. Brandon Bohl had six of those points for Elk Mound on a pair of triples while Mark Dickenson added a deuce and Ryan Mohr a free throw.

Half of the Mounders 12 points in the second period came from the free throw line with Colin Svee, Bohl and Dickenson all connecting on a pair while Brandon Redwine knocked down a couple of deuces to go with one by Carter Pritchard.

“They are ranked number one in the state for a reason,” Mounder coach Chris Hahn said. “We had a hard time entering the ball into our offense and slowing their offense down. It is so difficult to simulate their athleticism and quickness in practice and their ability to transition from one end of the floor to the other makes it very challenging to be successful. They do a lot of things very well and hopefully we can learn from them and apply it to our own game as we move forward,” he added.

G-E-T (85) N. Wagner 8-0-0-19, C. Thompson 5-3-4-13, A. Sill 5-0-0-11, T. Norris 4-0-0-8, D. Kvestad 3-0-0-7, N. Hammond 3-0-0-7, L. Scherr 3-1-1-7, A. Thompson 3-0-0-6, N. Anderson 1-2-2-4, T. Scherr 1-0-0-3

ELK MOUND (21) Bohl 2-2-2-8, Redwine 2-0-0-4, Dickenson 1-2-2-4, Pritchard 1-0-0-2, Svee 0-2-2-2, Mohr 0-1-2-1

THREE POINTERS: Wagner 3, Bohl 2, Kvestad 1, Hammond 1, Sill 1, T. Scherr 1

Spring Valley

With  Mondovi bumping off conference leading Durand, the Mounders could have put themselves in a tie for the conference lead with a win. But playing without Lew again, who injured himself before the G-E-T game, while missing top reserve Chandler Schreiber who is also hurt, cut into the team depth for this game. To top it off, guard Alex Hollister was not playing at full strength after being ill all week.

Lambele hit from behind the arc and close range to put the Mounders up 7-6 then dropped in a free throw to knot it at 8-8 early in the game. After falling behind 11-8, Dickenson scored off an inbounds pass to get Elk Mound closer, but the Cardinals drained a triple to go up 14-10. Lambele hit from the paint again and after Spring Valley went back up 17-12 on another trey, Svee came up with a bucket-and-one to keep his team within two. Another deuce by the Cardinals upped their lead again before Lambele’s deuce and a drive by Bohl knotted things at 19-19. Svee put Elk Mound up with a bucket but the Cardinals offense continued to counter every Mounder shot and went up 25-21 before Pritchard canned a trey to cut the deficit to 25-24.After scoring on a put back, the Cardinals led the Mounders 27-24 at the break.

Elk Mound  played from behind the whole second half  and came within a point several  times but just couldn’t get over the hump. Svee assisted Dylan Black  for a deuce, Bohl and Lambele each hit a free throw, Bohl drained a shot from downtown Elk Mound and Svee swiped the ball and scored on a layup to get the Mounders to a point down 34-33. After the Cardinals responded again from close range, Svee returned the favor off an inbounds pass and they were still behind by a point with around 10 minutes left in the game. Lambele added a bucket and Pritchard drained a trey to keep them within three at 43-40 and after Spring Valley went up 46-40, Bohl canned another trey. Tyman knocked down his own triple, Bohl scored on a drive and Tyman followed with another shot in the paint, but in between, the Mounders defense couldn’t stop the Cardinals as they continued to put the ball in the basket themselves. Down 55-50, Lambele hit a free toss but the Mounders committed their seventh team foul with 1:30 to go and the Cardinals hit a pair of free throws. Dickenson countered with a steal and a layup but two more Cardinal free tosses put Spring Valley back up 59-53. The game wasn’t over yet however, as with seven ticks on the clock, Pritchard dropped in a deuce and the bank was open in Elk Mound late on this Friday night with Tyman using the glass to drop in another trey to cut the Mounder deficit to 60-58 with 1.6 seconds left. It was too late though as a quick foul by the Mounders allowed Spring Valley to ice the game with a free throw.

“Spring Valley is a solid team and they hit big shots all night,” Mounder coach Chris Hahn said. “Every time we made a run at them, they had an answer. We struggled shooting the ball and a number of open shots we usually make just wouldn’t go down for us. Our mistakes led to too many easy baskets for them and we didn’t shoot well from the free throw line. You can’t have mistakes like that in a close game,” he added.

Lambele led the Mounders with 12 points, Bohl added 11 and both Pritchard and Tyman collected 10 each. Elk Mound was 5 of 11 from the foul line while the Cardinals were 11 of 19.

SPRING VALLEY (61) S. Borgerding 8-2-3-19, P. Cipriano 5-4-4-15, D. Larson 3-1-4-7, T. Kado 3-0-0-6, Z. Boisen 2-0-0-6, D. Bosshart 1-1-2-3, Z. Williams 1-1-2-3, N. Kalmes 0-2-4-2

ELK MOUND (58) Lambele 4-3-8-12, Bohl 4-1-2-11, Pritchard 4-0-0-10, Tyman 4-1-2-10, Svee 4-1-1-9, Dickenson 2-0-0-4, Black 1-0-0-2

THREE POINTERS: Pritchard 2, Bohl 2, Tyman 2, Boisen 2, Lambele 1, Cipriano 1, Borgerding 1