Bulldog boys’ basketball team on a roll
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By Missy Klatt
Sports Correspondent
It was a joyous week for the Bulldog boys’ basketball team as it won both of its contests this past week.
Boyceville’s first victory came at the hands of the Prairie Farm Panthers where the Bulldogs won 53-37 in front of a hometown crowd on Monday, January 27th.
Then, on Thursday, January 30th, they traveled to Plum City where they defeated the Elmwood/Plum City Wolves 50-47.
Boyceville, now 2-6 in conference and 3-10 overall, has a long stretch of home games which started with hosting the Mondovi Buffaloes on Tuesday, February 4th. They will host local rivals, the Glenwood City Hilltoppers on Friday the 7th and Cadott next Monday, February 10th.
Prairie Farm
Head Coach Colby Dotseth, happy with the win commented, “I thought we really did a nice job on both ends of the floor. They (Prairie Farm) played a zone defense on us for the entire first half and we really did a great job being unselfish and moving the basketball through the zone and gave up a lot of nice shots to get even better shots.”
Dotseth also thought that they played well on defense. In the first half, the Bulldogs held the Panthers to just 14 points while they scored 24 in the same time period.
In the second half, Dotseth remarked that they did a nice job on the defensive end and getting after loose balls.
“We also did a nice job throughout the game finishing at the rim for the first time this year,” added Dotseth.
The Panthers went to a man-to-man defense for a short while in the second half and the Bulldogs got a little out of control during that time. Dotseth felt that if they can limit themselves in that aspect of the game that they should be very competitive in the second half of the season.
The Bulldogs outscored the Panthers 29-23 in the second half. This included a perfect seven-for-seven from the free throw line. This is something that the Bulldogs have continued to improve upon during the season.
Dotseth praised several of his players for their good play during the game
Logan Knudtson he said really did a nice job getting to the rim and not settling for jumpers, as he led the Bulldogs in scoring with 24 points. Cade Klefstad was another player that Dotseth said did a great job on the glass and also posting up and finding shot opportunities on the offensive end.
“Brendan Sempf did a really great job seeing the floor and keeping us under control on offense as he had six assists,” remarked Dotseth.
Defensively, he gave credit to Connor Sempf and Connor Larson. Sempf for doing a great job guarding a kid he was under sized with and Larson for coming off the bench and doing a great job of getting after loose balls.
Dotseth concluded by saying that, “The boys played with great effort on both ends of the floor and they really gained a lot of confidence after this win. Hopefully we will continue this confidence and effort as we head into the second half of the season.”
Boyceville (53)
FG-FT-F-T: Retz 1-1-0-3, B. Sempf 3-0-1-6, C. Sempf 3-2-2-10, Knudtson 9-4-0-24, Hazelton 0-0-0-0, Wruck 0-0-0-0, Larson 0-0-0-0, J. Klefstad 0-0-3-0, C. Klefstad 5-0-1-10. Total 21-7-7-53.
Prairie Farm (37)
FG-FT-F-T: Harren 1-0-1-3, Stewart 3-0-1-8, Klefstad 1-0-0-2, T. Rassbach 4-0-0-8, Klefstad 2-0-3-4, Briel 0-1-1-1, Whitman 5-1-2-11, Kahl 0-0-1-0, J. Rassbach 0-0-1-0. Total 16-2-10-37.
Boyceville 24 29 – 53
Prairie Farm 14 23 – 37
3-point goals: Boyceville: C. Sempf, Knudtson 2. Prairie Farm: Harren, Stewart 2.
Elmwood/Plum City
On Thursday, the Bulldogs garnered their second conference win when they defeated the Wolves in Plum City by three points.
Coach Dotseth commented that overall the boys played a great game but did concede that they got off to a sluggish start.
“We started the first half slow and sluggish. We struggled with keeping them off the glass on the offensive end. We also struggled with turnovers in the half court. But as sluggish as we played the boys really kept hustling and battling,” stated Dotseth.
At the end of the first half the Bulldogs were down by four, 26-30, which Dotseth said felt like it was a win for his team with how poor it played in the first half.
At the start of the second half, the Bulldogs were really struggling and it was somewhere around the seven minute mark that they finally got on the board.
At one point during that half, they were down by sixteen points. Boyceville was finally able to slow the tempo of the game down and cut down the fast break opportunities for the Wolves. At this point the Dawgs were able to start their climb up.
Walker Retz came up with a huge offensive rebound and put back in the last couple of minutes which sparked a Bulldog run. Then Brendan Sempf and Connor Sempf hit three consecutive triples to give the Dawgs the lead. Then John Klefstad hit a huge jumper from the free throw line to put them up three and seal the game.
“The boys really played well defensively as a whole in the second half” noted Dotseth.
In particular, he said that Connor Sempf guarded their leading scorer all night and held him to just seven points. Other players that Dotseth commended were: Walker Retz, he played a great game on both ends of the floor and was aggressive offensively; Trevor Hollister came off the bench and gave us great minutes and came up with a couple of rebounds late in the game in key moments; John Klefstad came off the bench and hit a big time jumper in the final minute and also played with great energy and effort on the defensive end.
Dotseth ended by stating, “Overall, we were balanced offensively and the boys played within their roles and collectively were able to come back and pull off a huge victory for the program. The boys were fired up after the game and rightfully so, they battled hard with great effort and never quit.”
Logan Knudtson led the team with 15 points. Walker Retz and Brendan Sempf also hit double digits with 12 and 10 respectively.
Boycveille (50)
FG-FT-F-T: Retz 5-1-4-12, B. Sempf 3-1-3-10, C. Sempf 2-0-4-5, Knudtson 5-2-0-15, J. Klefstad 1-0-2-2, C. Klefstad 0-0-5-0, Hollister 2-2-3-6. Total 18-6-21-50.
Elmwood/Plum City (47)
FG-FT-F-T: Glampe 7-4-3-18, Whipple 2-0-3-4, Phillips 1-2-1-5, Gilles 4-5-2-13, Webb 2-3-2-7, Pelzel 0-0-1-0. Total 16-14-11-47.
Boyceville 26 24 – 50
Elmwood/Plum City 30 17 – 47
3-point goals: Boyceville: Retz, B. Sempf 3, C. Sempf, Knudtson 3. Elmwood/Plum City: Phillips.