Elk Mound boys start season with pair of wins
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The Elk Mound boys’ basketball team opened its 2021-22 season with a pair of impressive non-conference victories last week.
Tipping off a new hardwood campaign at home last Tuesday, November 30, the Mounder boys delivered a 60-41 knock-out against Eau Claire Regis. Two days later, Elk Mound made the long trek south to Arcadia where it enjoyed an even more lopsided win, taking down the Raiders 79 to 53.
Now 2-0, Elk Mound is set to start Dunn-St. Croix Conference play this week with a pair of games. The Mounders opened at Plum City against the Elmwood-Plum City Wolves last evening (Tuesday, December 7) and will host Glenwood City on Thursday. The Mounders will then play a pair of out-of-league games hosting Altoona this Saturday, December 11 before going to Bloomer next Tuesday, December 14.
Eau Claire Regis
A big first half of offense that included, seven three-point makes, helped lift the Elk Mound boys basketball squad to a 36-22 lead over Eau Claire Regis in the season and home opener last Tuesday, November 30.
Sophomore Kaden Russo nailed all four of his three-point makes in the opening 18 minutes of action and finished the half with 14 of his game-leading 18 points.
Junior Ryan Bartig also had a pair from behind the arc in the first half with senior Ethan Johnson and freshman Cale Knutson contributing a triple each during that span.
The Mounders also outscored the Ramblers 24-19 in the second half to secure the 19-point win.
6’ 6” sophomore Sam Wenzel netted eight of his 12 points in the second half to help the Mounders while Bartig and Johnson finished with nine and eight points, respectively.
Russo also had a team-leading nine rebounds with Wenzel tallying six, Johnson had five, and Brex Todd and Jerome Delikowski finished with four. Wenzel finished with four assists while Russo and Knutson had three apiece.
“Great start to the year,” stated head coach Mike Kessler.
“Lots of quality contributions from all of our guys but, there is still plenty of stuff to work on,” he added.
Kendron Krogman finished with 15 points to lead Regis with Josh Brickner throwing in 11.
Arcadia
Elk Mound all but put its game, at Arcadia last Thursday, out of reach by halftime, scoring 49 points while holding the Raiders to just 24.
Another three-point splurge in the first half vaulted the Mounders out to its big lead. Elk Mound hit 11 of its 14 three-pointers in the first half led by three each from Kaden Russo and Ryan Bartig. Cale Knutson offered up a pair, and Aiden Bartholomew, Brex Todd and Ethan Johnson had one each. Senior Terry Mercer had two in the second half and Todd another to complete Elk Mound’s scoring from behind the three-point arc.
Although its scoring slowed in the second half, Elk Mound still managed to nip Arcadia 30 to 29 to finish with the 79-53 win.
11 players scored for the Mounders led by Ryan Bartig’s 14, all of which came in the first half as did Russo’s 11 points. Brex Todd and Cale Knutson each tallied eight points, Sam Wenzel, Jerome Delikowski, and Aiden Bartholomew all finished with seven and Terry Mercer six.
“Kids played a great first half,” noted Kessler. “We shot the ball really well in the (first) half and knocked down (a lot) of three-point shots,” he added.
“It was a really balanced scoring attack throughout the game,” concluded Kessler.
Trev Bjorge and Kaden Updike led Arcadia’s scoring effort with 15 and 11 points, respectively.