Elk Mound boys all alone at top of conference with win over Durand

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by Marlys Kruger

Sports Correspondent

ELK MOUND -— When the Durand-Arkansaw Panthers entered the very full Elk Mound gym on Friday, February 3, both teams knew the winner of the contest would have the upper hand when it came to claiming a Dunn-St. Croix Conference championship. The game between the two teams scheduled earlier in the season was postponed due to bad weather, and with both of them holding an 8-0 mark in the conference with five games left, one of them would be all alone in first place for the time being. The two teams will face each other in the final regular season game in a Saturday matinée February 25.

The game played out as expected for the first half and part of the second half, but in the end the overall quickness of the Mounders on both ends of the court along with an outstanding inside-out game on offense allowed Elk Mound to take a 73-54 win.

“Tonight was a playoff type atmosphere,” Elk Mound coach Chris Hahn said. “Our crowd had incredible energy and our players fed off that the entire night,” he added.

As the Mounders have done so often this season, they started the game off with a bang with Cale Knutson draining a pair of triples and Kaden Russo swiping the ball away from the Panthers and flying home with a slam dunk for an 8-2 Mounder lead. After a Panther triple, Knutson came up with his own steal and drove the ball in for a layup and a10-5 advantage, but another trey and a bucket in the paint for Durand knotted it at 10-10. 

It was Russo’s turn to heat up as he drilled back-to-back triples for a 16-10 lead but a seven-point run for the Panthers gave them a lead at 17-16. Ryan Bartig hit a pair of free throws to put the Mounders back in front but again the Panthers countered with a trey from Ethan Hurlburt and it was 20-18 for Durand. Knutson quickly changed that however, as he canned his third shot from deep for a 21-20 advantage but a Panther put back produced another lead change. After the Mounders two attempts on shots from long range missed the mark, Sam Wenzel drove the baseline for a go ahead bucket, and a free throw by Bartig gave them a 24-22 advantage. 

The Panthers continued to put shots up and got one to drop on an offensive rebound to knot it up, but Knutson drove down court for another layup and a two-point lead. With just under a minute left in the half, Elk Mound went for a final shot, using quick passes to keep the ball in their possession. They took a shot but it went off the rim into Wenzel’s hands who dropped it in as the buzzer sounded for a 28-24 Mounder lead at the intermission.

“Cale and Kaden got us going in the first half,” coach Hahn said. “Both of them hit shots and were very active on the defensive end.”

Although Russo canned yet another triple early in the second half, coach Hahn appeared to change his game plan as Wenzel was fed the ball early and often and scored three times in the paint for a 37-31 Mounder lead. Knutson added a deuce in the lane but both teams failed on several possessions to find the hoop. Wenzel finally scored inside again, Russo dropped in a couple of free tosses and Logan Jerome, who had been pretty quiet up to this point, drilled a triple and suddenly it was 46-34 for Elk Mound.

The Mounders began using a half-court full press that seemed to rattle the Panthers as Russo  ended up with the ball twice, driving end-to-end for a pair of layups and a 50-37 advantage with 9:29 to go in the game.

“Coming out in the second half, we decided to change it up and press them,” Hahn said “That turned out well. It gave us a lot of energy and Durand played a little faster then maybe they wanted to. Sam was much more aggressive in the second half and we need him to play that way the entire game because he is such a threat to score at all times and that puts so much pressure on their defense,” he added.

Durand-Arkansaw made a run at the Mounders, pulling as close as six points down 53-47 but Knutson found the bottom of the net from long range again and Wenzel hit two free tosses and the lead was back up to 58-48 with just under

five minutes left. Aiden Bartholomew got into the scoring action with a drive down the baseline and Russo took a long in-bounds pass in for a deuce and after Knutson intercepted a Panther pass he flipped the ball ahead to Russo who once again brought the crowd to their feet with an exclamation-point slam dunk. 

Bartholomew dropped in a pair of free throws, Bartig drained four of his own and when Russo scored on yet another fast break layup off a steal,  it was a 20-point advantage at 72-52 with 1:21 on the clock. Bartig finished off the Mounder scoring with another free toss and Elk Mound ran the last 40 seconds off the clock to end the contest.

“Kaden was really a special player on defense for us tonight,” coach Hahn said. “He was disruptive on many possessions as he got numerous deflections, steals and rebounds. Ryan closed it out for us, hitting 8-of-10 free throws. This might be the most complete game we played this season against a quality opponent. We shot 56 percent from the field and defended really well. We need to keep getting better but we are starting to gain momentum,” Hahn concluded.

Russo was one of four Mounders who finished in double figures as he led with 21 points. Knutson added 20 points which included four triples, Wenzel finished with 15 points and Bartig dropped in 10. The Mounders were 15-for-19 at the foul stripe and 8-for-20 from three point land and came up with 14 steals with only nine turnovers. Durand-Arkansaw’s leading scorer, Zach Nelson, finished with 23 points while Hurlburt added 13. Durand drained seven triples and went 3-of-6 from the charity stripe.