Hilltopper boys bitten by Panthers

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By Missy Klatt
Sports Correspondent

GLENWOOD CITY — Christmas break means basketball in Glenwood City.

The Hilltoppers boys’ team played on Friday night, December, 27th as part of a double header. Unfortunately, like the girls team before them, they came out on the losing end as they lost to the Ellsworth Panthers, 49-69.

In the first half, the Panthers took a 3-0 lead but the Toppers were soon out in front with a bucket under the basket from Dan Loring and a three pointer at the top of the arc from Gavin Janson.

As play continued the Hilltoppers were playing well and keeping it close. With 9:27 on the clock, Brandyn Hallquist sank both of his free throws to pull within one point of the Panthers at 11-12.

It was at this point where the Panthers started to pull away. It was slow at first but as the half continued the Panthers had a few steals and took advantage of them as well as a few unforced errors from the Toppers that they capitalized on.

With 5:33 left to play in the half, the Toppers inbounded the ball under the Panthers basket with a long throw that beat the press and allowed Ethan Hanson an easy two points. The Panthers immediately countered with a three pointer. It was Hanson again for two with a shot he banked in followed by two more from the Panthers. At this point, the Panthers had an eight point 25-17 lead.

From there on out is where things really went south for the Toppers when the Panthers went on a 12-point run taking advantage of those Topper errors. The Panthers now had a twenty-point lead, 37-17.

With about a minute and a half left on the clock, Loring got on the board again for the Toppers with a two-point field goal. Then with 12.5 seconds the Panthers hit from outside the arc. The Toppers had one last chance in the half and they were successful when Janson sank another long ball right before the buzzer. Halftime score was Panthers 40 and the Hilltoppers 22.

Glenwood City started the second half strong with two quick baskets from Jordan Klatt and Janson, that so flustered the Panthers that they took a time out. If the second half was a game in itself, it would have been a very exciting game indeed with the lead flip flopping back-and-forth many times throughout the half.

Earlier in the second half, the Hilltoppers were having a hard time penetrating the Panthers man-to-man defense and turned to the outside shot but unfortunately they weren’t falling. It was about this time the Panthers went on a six-point run, their biggest of the half.

Later in the half, Glenwood City was hustling and coming up with some steals, just not always capitalizing on them. The Toppers also got some nice playing time from some of their bench players including Owen Swenby, who had a nice block. At the end, the Toppers were forcing their outside shots and came up just short in the half with the Panthers outscoring them by two points, 29-27. The final score read Panthers 69 and Hilltoppers 49.

For the game, Gavin Janson led the Toppers in scoring with 11 points, followed by Brandyn Hallquist with nine and Ethan Hanson with eight. The Panthers’ Mason Anderson led both teams in scoring with 27 points.

Despite losing, head coach Tristan Kittilson stated, “I thought it was our best game of the year overall.” He went on to say that he obviously wasn’t happy with the end results but he is looking at the progress they made during the game, noting that they took a step in the right direction as a team. “We scored a season high in points and showed great flashes of potential and team play.”

Kittilson is looking to build on this and be ready to compete when they take on Osseo-Fairchild this Friday, January 3rd at home. Glenwood City, still winless at 0-6, will restart conference play in Colfax next Tuesday, January 7.

Glenwood
City
(49)

FG-FT-F-T: Hallquist 2-5-2-9, Bilese 1-0-0-3, McCarthy 0-0-0-0, Janson 4-0-1-11, Olson 1-0-3-2, Wickman 0-1-0-1, Logghe 1-0-0-2, Hanson 4-0-5-8, Swenby 0-2-0-2, Loring 3-0-0-6, Moe 1-0-1-3, Klatt 1-0-4-2. Total 18-8-16-49.

Ellsworth
(69)

FG-FT-F-T: Janke 4-4-4-12, Coulthard 0-0-0-0, Matzek 0-1-2-1, Mehrkens 1-0-1-2, Mendez 5-0-1-12, Harrington 0-0-0-0, Schultz 4-1-2-9, Lange 1-0-4-2, Anderson 10-5-3-27, Smith 2-0-0-4, Quade 0-0-0-0, Pechacek 0-0-0-0. Total 26-11-17-69.

Glenwood
City…………………….22

27
—
49

Ellsworth…………………………….40

29
—
69

3-point
goals: Glenwood City: Bilese, Janson 3. Ellsworth: Mendez 2, Anderson 2.