Mounder boys corral Buffaloes
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MONDOVI — The start of last Tuesday’s, January 31, Dunn-St. Croix boys’ basketball game in Mondovi was a bit touch and go for Elk Mound.
After opening with a 7-0 run, the host Buffaloes responded with one of their own to take a 10-7 advantage. But, Elk Mound came right back with another points splurge to led by double digits at halftime and went on to score a 67-39 win to remain unbeaten in league play.
““We started the game with too many turnovers. We had four turnovers in our first 8 possessions,” stated Mounders’ head coach Chris Hahn.
“In the second half, we blew the game wide open by pushing the lead to over 30 with about 10 minutes of game time left. I was really proud of our effort and defensive rebounding for most of the night,” he added.
The Mounders went on to knock off Durand-Arkansaw 73-54 at home Friday, February 3 in a battle for first place (see that game story elsewhere in this week’s sports section).
With those two victories, Elk Mound improved to 9-0 in conference with a one-game edge over the D-A Panthers and 13-4 overall with seven games left on the regular-season slate including five conference competitions.
The Mounders opened a three-game homestand Monday by hosting St. Croix Central. Boyceville will be in town this Thursday, February 9 followed by Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau next Monday, February 13. Elk Mound will play in Colfax on Tuesday, February 14.
After Mondovi went ahead 10-7 at the start of the contest, Elk Mound was eventually able to pull ahead 23-19. Then, following a timeout, the Mounders went off on the Buffaloes scoring 13 unanswered points in the remaining minutes of the first half to take a 36-19 lead into the locker room.
Elk Mound expanded that lead in the second half as they cruised to a 67-39 victory in the final contest of January.
The Mounders dominated the boards corraling 39 to the hosts 21 and had a 21 to 11 advantage in assists with Aiden Bartholomew tallying seven of those while Ryan Bartig and Cale Knutson had four each.
“Aiden really played an excellent game tonight!” stated Hahn. “He set up his teammates, got numerous deflections, and rebounded the ball really well for us. He’s been working so hard all season, it was great to see him play so well.”
Sam Wenzel, Cale Knutson and Kaden Russo prepped well for the forthcoming Durand-Arkansaw tilt by scoring double digits in their squad’s 28-point win over the Buffs. Wenzel scored a double-double topping all scorers with 16 points and added 10 rebounds. Knutson netted 15 points on 5-of-8 shooting from three-point land, and Russo sank a pair of triples and was 5-for-9 on his other shots to score 13 points and hauled in six boards. Bartig finished with seven points and Logan Jerome had six.
Elk Mound went 11-for-21 from behind the three-point arc and was 4-for-7 at the free throw line.
Jerod Falkner and Max Marten were the top scorers for Mondovi, who made seven threes but went 0-for-5 at the line, with 12 and 10 points, respectively. The pair also finished with six rebounds each.