EM boys basketball narrowly defeats St. Croix Central
By Cara L. Dempski
ELK MOUND — It was not an easy win, and at one point, head coach Mike Kessler was not even sure it was going to be a win, but Elk Mound finished strong.
The Mounders came back from a 10-point deficit with seven minutes left in the game to nip the St. Croix Central Panthers 50-49 in a non-conference home game January 3.
Senior Noah Zurbuchen hit a three-point shot with only 3.2 seconds left on the clock to give Elk Mound the lead and the win.
“I’m really proud of the way our guys gutted it out,” Kessler said. “On a night when we shot the ball poorly, I was impressed with the energy and effort on the defensive end.”
Elk Mound trailed by one point at the half, but rallied in the second half with six field goals and a three from Ben Lambele and two three-pointers and four free shots from Zurbuchen to nearly double the team’s first-half score.
Lambele finished the game with 22 points, and Zurbuchen picked up 10. Dane Lew and Chandler Schreiber tied with six points each, Jameson Rubenzer and Ryan Mohr each put in two free throws, and Carter Pritchard and Dylan Black both are credited with one point each.
Panther senior Trevor Nelson led St. Croix Central with 13 points.
With the non-conference contest out of the way, the Mounders turned their attention to their long-standing D-SC rivals, Colfax, January 6. It was be the first conference match-up since Elk Mound’s December 15 defeat of Boyceville.
ST. CROIX CENTRAL 49, ELK MOUND 50
St. Croix Central…………………19 30 — 49
Elk Mound…………………………18 32 — 50
TEAM STATISTICS (FG-FT-F-T)
St. Croix Central (15-7-18-49) B. Williquett 0-0-2-3, C. Nelson 2-1-3-5, O. Schwechler 1-2-0-7, M. Brandeen 3-0-1-9, P. Nogal 4-1-3-9, T. Nelson 5-3-2-13, W. Soderberg 0-0-5-3, A. Kopacz 0-0-1-0.
Elk Mound (11-16-17-50) D. Lew 1-4-5-6, C. Pritchard 0-1-3-1, J. Rubenzer 0-2-1-2, R. Mohr 1-0-1-2, B. Lambele 7-2-3-22, D. Black 0-1-2-1, N. Zurbuchen 0-4-0-10, C. Schreiber 2-2-2-6.
THREE-POINTERS SCC — B. Williquett 1, O. Schwechler 1, M. Brandeen 1, W. Soderberg 1; EM — B. Lambele 2, N. Zurbuchen 2.