Boyceville boys still in search of win after three more losses
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By Missy Klatt
Sports Correspondent
The elusive ‘W’ has yet to be found by the Boyceville boys’ basketball team this season.
With three games on the docket this past week, it was three more games in the lost column. The week started with a loss to Webster on Monday, January 4th by a score of 36-59 at home. Next up the Bulldogs traveled to Turtle Lake the next evening, January 5, where they lost 40-70. They finished the week on the road at Spring Valley Friday, January 8 where they fell to the Cardinals, 31-67.
The three games that the Bulldogs, now 0-2 in confernce play and 0-7 overall, have this week were away on Monday and Tuesday, January 11 and 12, at Elmwood/Plum City and Augusta respectively and at home this Thursday, January 14th when they host Frederic. Boycveille will then travel to Elk Mound next Tuesday, January 19.
Webster
According head coach Colby Dotseth, the game against the Webster Tigers was a tale of two halves. In the first half, the Bulldogs struggled to shut Webster down in their half-court offense. They also struggled with turnovers, committing way too many of them. As a result the Tigers outscored them by 19 points and led 35-16 at the intermission.
In the second, Dotseth remarked that their defense was much better and it showed on the scoreboard as they were only outscored by four points, 24-20 in the half. Going forward, the Bulldogs plan to work on their turnovers as they found in this game that it allowed the Tigers too many scoring opportunities off of fast breaks.
Offensively, the Bulldogs struggled to attack the Tigers zone defense.
“Hopefully now that we are going to be playing multiple games a week, the younger kids that contribute for us will start be more aggressive on both ends of the floor,” remarked Dotseth. “We really have struggled to start the year with offensive balance.”
Connor Sempf with twenty points and Walker Retz with nine points were the only Bulldog scorers who managed more than one basket for the night. Dotseth noted that Connor Larson has started to become more of a threat offensively which has helped his confidence and the team.
These three seniors also led the team in rebounds; Retz with eight and Sempf and Larson with five each. Retz also had five steals and Sempf four.
Chase Hollister came off the bench and contributed with 3 assists and 4 rebounds.
There are a lot of freshman and sophomores contributing with significant minutes and Dotseth is looking for them to continue to be great assets and role players.
“Also just buying in defensively as a whole and preventing these teams from scoring 50 points is a big goal of ours. If we do that as a team, then it will allow us to compete at our pace of play and start finding ourselves a chance to win at the end of ball games,” added the coach.
Boyceville (36)
FG-FT-F-TP: Retz 3-2-1-9, Evenson 0-0-1-0, Sempf 8-0-2-20, Olson 0-0-1-0, Wruck 1-0-0-3, Larson 1-0-2-2. Total 14-2-7-36.
Webster (59)
FG-FT-F-TP: Stadler 8-1-2-17, Wshburn 6-2-2-14, Sigfrids 2-1-1-5, Stenberg 4-0-0-8, Cadott 1-0-2-2, Benjamin 6-1-2-13. Total 27-5-9-59.
Boyceville…………………………16 20 – 36
Webster…………………………….35 24 – 59
3-point goals: Boyceville: Sempf 4, Wruck.
Turtle Lake
In Tuesday’s game against the Lakers of Turtle Lake, the Bulldogs once again struggled on offense and again had way too many turnovers. They also struggled on defense, letting the Lakers drive to the basket and giving them too many opportunities at the free throw line. The Lakers went to the line 18 times and sank 14 of those compared to the Bulldogs who only made eight trips to the line, connecting five times in the 40-70 loss.
Dotseth stated that they are getting plenty of open looks offensively but they are just not confident in their jump shots yet with a lot of the guys.
“We want to keep working on getting to the foul line more and we really want to keep working hard in practice with not having so many live ball turnovers,” stated Dotseth.
Sempf led in scoring with nine points. He also had four rebounds and four steals. Retz was next with eight points and seven rebounds and four steals.
“One positive I thought that came out of this game as far as individuals were senior Connor Larson got a little more aggressive from the field and went 3-7 on field goals,” remarked Dotseth.
Larson also had three assists and five rebounds for the night. Dotseth also praised the play of sophomore Jack Phillips who started to assert himself offensively with seven points and freshman Nick Olson. “He has really started to give us great minutes off the bench in the one half he is given to play.”
Boyceville (40)
FG-FT-F-TP: Retz 3-0-2-8, Evenson 0-0-1-0, Sempf 2-4-2-9, Olson 2-0-1-6, Wendland 1-0-1-2, Phillips 3-0-1-7, Roemhild 0-0-2-0, Larson 3-0-3-7, Bowell 0-1-0-1, Kaiser 0-0-1-0. Total 14-5-16-40.
Turtle Lake (70)
FG-FT-F-TP: Kahl 1-2-1-5, D. Torgerson 4-6-2-15, Humphrey 3-0-2-6, B. Thill 5-2-0-15, W. Thill 0-2-0-2, Stienke 7-2-2-19, Lauritson 0-0-2-0, N. Torgerson 4-0-2-8. Total 24-14-11-70.
Boyceville…………………………18 22 – 40
Turtle Lake………………………..37 33 – 70
3-point goals: Boyceville: Retz 2, Sempf, Olson 2, Phillips, Larson. Turtle Lake: Kahl, D. Torgerson, B. Thill 3, Stienke 3.
Spring Valley
It was another tough loss for the Bulldogs as they concluded the week in Spring Valley, falling 31-67 to the Cardinals.
They continued to struggle offensively and only put up 14 points in the first half against the Cardinals half court press.
Dotseth commented that, “Spring Valley didn’t allow us to start our offense where we would have liked too. We really need to continue to develop some chemistry especially defensively and do a better job of talking if we want to be successful and compete in basketball games.”
The first half ended with the Cardinals taking a 35-14 lead into the locker room.
The second half wasn’t much better as the Bulldogs were outscored by 15 points at 17-32.
Sempf and Retz were once again the scoring leaders, Sempf with 12 points and Retz with nine. Retz also pulled down ten rebounds. Dotseth remarks about them: “I have to give them credit to, as seniors with the early struggles we have had as a team they have really done a nice job staying positive with the younger kids who have had to step up and play varsity. They also have been great leaders on and off the court.”
Dotseth continued, “Jack Phillips has earned a few varsity starts now and continues to give great hustle minutes on both ends of the floor. Caden Wold has missed the last three games due to a hand injury but we should have him back next week which will only help make us deeper as a team. Hopefully we can keep making steps in the right direction and start to compete in basketball games. We have three games this next week that could really be turning points for us this season, so hopefully we come out with great effort and compete.”
Boyceville (31)
FG-FT-F-TP: Retz 2-5-1-9, Sempf 3-4-2-12, Olson 1-0-2-2, Phillips 1-0-3-2, Roemhild 0-0-1-0, Larson 2-0-2-4, Bowell 0-0-1-0, Kaiser 0-0-1-0, Hollister 1-0-0-2, Downey 0-0-1-0. Total 10-9-14-31.
Spring Valley (67)
FG-FT-F-TP: Ducklow 9-1-1-21, Bauer 6-0-2-15, Stans3-4-2-15, Stasick 3-1-2-8, Goveronski 2-0-0-4, Bowman 2-0-4-4, DuMond 1-0-1-3, Becharek 1-0-0-2. Total 27-6-13-67.
Boyceville………………………….14 17 – 31
Spring Valley………………………35 32 – 67
3-point goals: Boyceville: Sempf 2. Spring Valley: Ducklow 2, Bauer 3, Stasick, DuMond.
