Boyceville boys fall to Lakers and Cardinals
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By Missy Klatt
Sports Correspondent
Two more games resulted in two more losses with similar scores for the Boyceville boys’ basketball team this past week.
Last week’s action started with a non-conference game at home Monday, January 13th against the Lakers of Turtle Lake where the Bulldogs lost 42-75. Then on Thursday, the 16th, Boyceville ventured to Spring Valley where it fell to the Cardinals 42-70 in a conference match up.
Boyceville fell to 1-4 in the Dunn-St. Croix and 1-8 overall with the most recent losses.
The Bulldogs played in Colfax last evening Tuesday, January 21st and will be at home this Friday, the 24th, when they take on the Mounders of Elk Mound. They continue at home when they host Prairie Farm next Monday, January 27th.
Turtle Lake
According to head coach Colby Dotseth, the Bulldogs started the game off and were playing competitively at both ends of the court.
Boyceville exchanged baskets with Turtle Lake for most of the first half until the final two minutes when the Lakers went on an 8-0 run to end the half.
Dotseth said that this ended up being a teaching moment for the boys at halftime about how critical that momentum swing was just before the half. The Bulldogs finished the half down by six points at 27-33.
In the second half, the Lakers came out shooting from the outside extremely well, knocking down seven of their twelve three-pointers in the game during the second half.
Both teams were shooting a lot of jumpers in the second half making for a fast paced game, however, for the Bulldogs those jumpers weren’t making it through the hoop for the most part.
The Bulldogs were only able to garner 15 points in the half compared to the Lakers 42.
Coach Dotseth lamented, “We really need to get better at attacking the rim as a whole unit. My hopes are that some of our role players that are struggling to shoot the ball can start to confidently knock down open looks.”
Kudos to Logan Knudtson (16 points) and Brendan Sempf (16 points) from Coach Dotseth. He remarked that they continue to do a really great job of attacking and creating opportunities for themselves and their teammates. Dotseth went on to say that he thought Logan Knudtson played his best game defensively in guarding one of their top scorers (Brendan Strenke) and held him to just three points in the contest.
Dotseth also praised the play of John Klefstad who came in off the bench and played well on the defensive end.
In conclusion Dotseth stated, “We really need to work on getting to the free throw line and also putting in a full game effort. We have proven we can play with anyone for a half but then we never seem to have that same energy in the second half. So we will talk about that and work on it and hopefully we can start having some close contests from here on out.”
Boyceville (42)
FG-FT-F-T: Retz 1-0-2-3, B. Sempf 6-0-2-16, McRoberts 0-0-1-0, Knudtson 7-0-1-16, Hazelton 0-0-1-0, Wendland 0-0-0-0, Nye 0-0-1-0, Larson 1-0-1-3, J. Klefstad 0-0-2-0, C. Klefstad 2-0-1-4. Total 17-0-12-42.
Turtle Lake (75)
FG-FT-F-T: L. Torgerson 8-1-0-19, Humphrey 4-1-0-12, Thill 4-0-0-11, Kahl 7-2-3-18, Strenke 1-0-0-3, Davis 3-0-2-7, Hasasel 2-1-1-5, N. Torgerson 0-0-2-0, Ramelfanger 0-0-0-0. Total 29-5-8-75.
Boyceville 27 15 – 42
Turtle Lake 33 42 – 75
3-point goals: Boyceville: Retz, B. Sempf 4, Knudtson 2, Larson. Turtle Lake: L.Torgerson 2, Humphrey 3, Thill 3, Kahl 2, Strenke, Davis.
Spring Valley
It was a slow start for the Bulldogs in Spring Valley last Thursday as the Cardinals jumped out to an early 10-0 lead. According to Coach Dotseth, Boyceville struggled to put the ball through the hoop in the first half.
“Spring Valley is always a tough team to run half-court offensive sets against and they did a great job denying us easy opportunities in the paint,” said Dotseth.
The Cardinals outscored the Dawgs 36-15 in the first half.
In the second half, Dotseth was proud of the effort and fight his boys gave.
“They never folded and played almost even basketball with Spring Valley in terms of scoring,” noted Dotseth. “We definitely had some learning moments throughout the game and a lot of the under classmen got to see the floor for a lot of quality minutes.”
The Bulldogs scored 27 points in the second half to the Cardinals 34.
Logan Knudtson (17 points) and Brendan Sempf (15 points) were once again the leading scorers for the Bulldogs. Dotseth credited them for doing a nice job of attacking and not taking what the defense gave them. Dotseth was also happy with the team’s free throws, going 10-for-11 from the line. He remarked that this was a big positive to take away from the game.
Dotseth also praised Beck Wendland for his work off the bench. “[He] looks more comfortable with each game of varsity experience under his belt.”
Dotseth concluded, “We will continue to look to cut down on our turnovers and then put together a full 36 minutes of hard fought basketball and good things will come.”
Boyceville (42)
FG-FT-F-T: Retz 0-0-0-0, B. Sempf 6-0-3-15, McRoberts 0-2-3-2, Knudtson 5-6-3-17, Wendland 0-2-0-2, Nye 0-0-3-0, Larson 1-0-0-2, J. Klefstad 0-0-2-0, C. Klefstad 1-0-2-2, Hollister 1-0-2-2. Total 14-10-16-42.
Spring Valley (70)
FG-FT-F-T: Stangl 5-0-0-15, Bauer 1-3-1-5, Kolval 0-0-2-0, Bednarck 0-0-1-0, Borgerding 8-1-0-18, Bowman 4-3-2-13, Maier 1-0-1-2, Hannack 2-0-1-4, Olson 2-1-3-5, Ducklow 4-0-2-8. Total 27-7-13-70.
Boyceville 15 27 – 42
Spring Valley 36 34 – 70
3-point goals: Boyceville: B. Sempf 3, Knudtson. Spring Valley: Stangl 5, Borgerding, Bowman 2.