Elk Mound boys basketball team splits non-conference games to open season
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The Elk Mound boys’ basketball team split a pair of non-conference games to open its 2022-23 hardwood campaign.
While many area teams had contests postponed or canceled last Tuesday due to the snow storm, the Mounders boys were able to make the trip to Stanley-Boyd November 29 and returned home with a convincing 71-31 win over the host Orioles.
Elk Mound, however, came up shot in its home opener three days later when the visiting Arcadia Raiders rallied in the second half to earn the 65-57 win behind the 34-point performance of Connor Weltzein and another 21 points from teammate Maverick Drazkowski.
The Mounder boys’ team (1-1) has a busy week ahead of themselves with three games on the schedule. Elk Mound opened Dunn-St. Croix play last night (Tuesday, December 6) in Glenwood City and will return home on Thursday to host Mondovi. The Mounders will finish out the week taking on Altoona this Saturday afternoon (4:15 p.m.), December 10 in the Holiday Classic at UW-Stout.
Stanley-Boyd
A tenacious defense coupled with offensive success helped Elk Mound build a large first-half lead in their season opener at Stanley-Boyd last Tuesday, November 29.
The Mounder defense held an inexperienced Orioles squad to just five points in the first 18 minutes of action while finding success on the offensive end to take a 29-5 halftime advantage into the locker room.
“I thought we played a little tight on offense the first few minutes of the game, but once we settled in, I thought we forced them in to a lot of tough shots,” stated Elk Mound head coach Chris Hahn.
“Only giving up five points in a half is a tribute to our kids playing hard on defense and finishing possessions,” Hahn added.
Elk Mound hit five triples in the opening half with Ryan Bartig knocking down a pair along with a two-point hoop and all four of his foul shots to lead the Mounders with a dozen of his 13 points in the opening half. Kaden Russo, Cale Knutson and Logan Jerome each sank a three-point shot in the decisive first half of action while Sam Wenzel and Jerome Delikowski each had a pair of conventional hoops.
In the second half, the Mounders’ offense was red hot as they put down seven more three pointers including three each by Russo and Knutson. Wenzel added three more buckets to his total with Aiden Bartholomew chipping in for five points including a three as the Mounders scored 42 points to the Orioles 26 to win 71-31.
“Sam Wenzel did a nice job attacking the basket and we need to continue to feed him the ball throughout the game,” said Hahn.
“Ryan Bartig was a great floor leader for us and got off to a great start on the offensive end early in the game when shots for others weren’t falling,” continued Hahn. “In the second half, Ryan got others the ball in a position to score and we were able to get high-quality looks.”
Four Mounders scored in the double digits led by Cale Knutson with 14 points, 13 from Bartig, 12 points by Russo (all from behind the arc) and Wenzel chipped in with ten points. Adding to the team’s tally were Delikowski with six, Logan Jerome and Aiden Bartholomew with five each and Grandt Mueller finished with four.
Elk Mound shot a stellar 11-for-12 from the charity stripe.
Despite the lopsided win to open the season, Coach Hahn said that his charges have plenty to work on.
“We had too many turnovers and had too many possessions in the second half that we gave up offensive rebounds that led to baskets,” he noted.
“We will need to improve in those areas to compete with the best teams on our schedule,” Hahn concluded.
Arcadia
Although the Mounders held a slim one-point advantage at the intermission which it built into a double-digits lead early in the second half of its home opener against Arcadia last Friday, December 2, they never could shut down the Raiders’ “Top Gun”, Connor Weltzein who dropped in 34 points or his teammate Maverick Drazkowski who added another 21 points to help rally Arcadia to a 65-57 victory.
Leading 35-34 at halftime, Elk Mound was outscored 31-22 in the second half.
Elk Mound looked to have the momentum when it took a 51-39 lead with 13:42 to play in the game. Unfortunately, the Mounders scored just six points the remainder of the contest.
“Over the course of the game, we competed hard,” said Coach Hahn. “I thought we did a good job taking care of the basketball. We only had 12 turnovers to their 20. However, we did not defend their best player (Weltzein) well. We continued to lose him throughout the game and that’s on me. I need to do a better job preparing our players to defend the other team’s best player. Too often Arcadia got the ball in the paint and it put us in challenging positions to defend.”
Another major difference in the outcome of the game came at the free throw line. Elk Mound made just 10 of its 20 attempts while Arcadia hit on 19 of its 25 throws, which accounted for the eight-point difference in the final score.
“We fouled them too often because of poor technique on the defensive side of the ball,” stated Hahn.
The Mounder did outpoint the Raiders from behind the three-point arc as it hit nine compared to the Raiders six.
Russo finished with 19 points which included four triples to lead the Mounders, Knutson tallied three treys and 15 points while Bartig finished with two, three-point buckets and 13 points.