Topper boys close regular season with losses to Buffs and Wolves
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By Missy Klatt
Sports Correspondent
With two more losses, both on the road, this past week, the Glenwood City boys’ basketball team closed out its regular season with an overall 4-16 record and finished 2-12 and in seventh place in the Dunn-St. Croix conference.
The Hilltoppers first game last week was at the home of the Mondovi Buffaloes on Monday, February 8th where they lost by a mere two points at 48-50. Then in the regular-season finale on Thursday, February 11th, they were devoured by the Elmwood/Plum City Wolves, 78-49.
The four seed Toppers played number five Shell Lake on Tuesday, February 16th at home in the first round of the Division 4 WIAA tournament. A victory would send Glenwood City to Clear Lake this Friday, February 19 to face the unbeaten and top-seeded Warriors (18-0), who received a first-round bye and are ranked ninth in Division 4 state polls.
Mondovi
On Monday, the Hilltoppers were in Mondovi where they played another well-matched and close game but they just couldn’t come out ahead.
“It was a very tough loss for us!” remarked head coach Tristan Kittilson. “It was tight all game long we had our opportunities time and time again and just couldn’t get it done. It’s a hard gym to win in and just couldn’t finish the game and make enough plays.”
By the end of the first half, the Toppers were down by just one point at 28-29. Brandyn Hallquist had nine of his twenty points for the game in the first half while Drew Olson scored all of his eight points in the first half.
The second half again went to the Buffaloes by one point at 21-20. The Toppers did a better job at the free throw line than the Buffaloes, shooting 78% (11 for 14) to the Buffs 54% (6 for 11) but still it just wasn’t quite enough to get them over the edge to victory.
Gavin Janson was the only other Topper in double digits with ten points.
Glenwood City (48)
FG-FT-F-TP: Hallquist 6-5-2-20, Bliese 2-0-2-4, Janson 4-0-1-10, Olson 3-2-0-8, Eggert 1-0-1-2, Moe 0-2-1-2, Swenby 0-2-2-2. Total 16-11-9-48.
Mondovi (50)
FG-FT-F-TP: Larson 0-1-0-1, Marten 1-0-3-2, J. Falkner 5-0-0-11, W. Falkner -0-0-0-0, Rud 2-1-2-5, Gray 6-2-1-17, Everson 2-0-3-5, Parr 1-0-2-3, Brion 1-2-1-4, Johnston 0-0-1-0. Total 18-6-13-50.
Glenwood City…………………….28 20 – 48
Mondovi…………………………..29 21 – 50
3-point goals: Glenwood City: Hallquist 3, Janson 2. Mondovi: J. Falkner 3, Gray 3, Everson, Parr.
Elmwood/Plum City
In the game against the Wolves on Thursday, Kittilson admitted that it was a very poorly played game from start to finish.
He said that his players struggled with the Wolves’ press and had 17 turnovers in the first half alone. This made for a very lopsided first half with the Wolves putting up 50 points on the board to just 17 for the Hilltoppers.
The second half was better for the Toppers but of course it was too late. The Toppers had the advantage in the second half 32-28 but lost the game 78-49.
Being 100 percent from the free throw line didn’t really help the Toppers this game as they didn’t make it there very often being only six-for-six from the line.
Brandyn Hallquist had a big night with 23 points but unfortunately he was the only Topper to hit double digits.
“E/PC played very well and was the better team,” noted Kittilson “We really need to have a couple of great practices and mentally get ready to play at a much higher level come Tuesday!”
Glenwood City (49)
FG-FT-F-TP: Hallquist 10-2-1-23, Bliese 1-2-0-4, G. Janson 1-0-0-3, Olson 3-2-3-8, M. Janson 1-0-0-2, Eggert 1-0-2-2, Anderson 0-0-1-0, Moe 1-0-2-2, Nelson 1-0-0-3, Wallin 1-0-0-2. Total 20-6-9-49.
Elmwood/Plum City (78)
FG-FT-F-TP: Hartung 4-0-0-8, Whipple 3-1-0-8, Bartz 5-0-2-10, Pelzel 1-0-3-3, Gunsluckner 0-0-2-0, Webb 9-5-1-23, Bauer 11-0-3-22, Solfest 2-0-1-4. Total 35-6-12-78.
Glenwood City…………………..17 32 – 49
Elmwood/Plum City……………50 28 – 78
3-point goals: Glenwood City: Hallquist, G. Janson, Nelson. Elmwood/Plum City: Whipple, Pelzel.
