Elk Mound boys score trio of victories including pair against conference foes

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The Elk Mound boys’ basketball team came away with a trio of wins last week including a pair against Dunn-St. Croix squads.

Hitting the road last Monday, February 17, Elk Mound played at Baldwin-Woodville and returned home with a 68-52 win in the non-conference contest.

The following evening, Elk Mound returned home to host Elmwood-Plum City. The Mounders scored a 75-55 win over the Wolves.

Elk Mound then traveled to Glenwood City last Friday, February 21 where it took on the Hilltoppers for the second time in eight days. Despite a lackluster performance, the Mounders escaped Glenwood City with a 61-52 victory as they improved to 10-3 in conference action, good for third place, and 18-4 overall.

The Mounders, who received the number one seed in the lower half bracket of the WIAA Division 3 Somerset Sectional and a first-round bye, will finish off the regular season with a pair of home games. Elk Mound welcomed Bloomer (16-4), the number two seed on the same side of the sectional bracket and leader of the Cloverbelt West Conference, this past Monday, February 24. The Mounders will then play their final Dunn-St. Croix Conference game against Mondovi on Thursday, February 27. Elk Mound will be moving to the Cloverbelt Conference starting this fall.

The WIAA boys’ basketball tournament gets underway next Tuesday, March 4 with regional quarterfinals. Elk Mound will host the winner of the Omro (39) versus Altoona (#8) contest on Friday, March 7.

Baldwin-Woodville

Elk Mound came out flat and started slow when it visited Baldwin-Woodville February 17.

After missing their first four shots from the field, the Mounders finally caught fire and missed just two more shots the rest of the first half as it went on to defeat the Blackhawks, who are just 7-14 for the season and sit in sixth place in the very competitive Middle Border Conference, 68-52 in the out-of-league contest.

Senior Cale Knutson scored  16 of the Mounders’ first 19 points including four three pointers. He finished the game with 21 points.

“Once he saw the first one go down his confidence took over and it was smooth sailing from there,” said Mounders’ first-year head coach Dennis Arneson of Knutson’s accuracy.

Elk Mound shot a blistering 84 percent in the first half as it climbed out to an early 15-point lead, but that was cut to 10 at the half as the Mounders held a 32-22 advantage.

Senior Logan Jerome took over offensively in the second half. After netting just five points through the first 18 minutes of play, Jerome scored 17 points in the latter half with all but three of those points coming inside the three-point arc as he lead all scorers with 23 points.

Baldwin-Woodville was able to cut the lead to eight at one point in the second half, but the game was never in question.

“We knew going into the game it would be a factor in the seedings that come out over this past weekend and we delivered a great win with all three levels getting W’s,” noted Arneson.

Elk Mound outscored Baldwin-Woodville 36 to 30 over the final 18 minutes of play to secure the 16-point victory.

Beside leading in points, Jerome and Knutson also topped the rebounding charts with six each. Knutson finished with five of the Mounders nine threes while Jerome had a pair.

Freshman Zeb Robinson had the Mounder other two triples and also finished in double figures with a dozen points, and also added four boards and three assists. Junior Victor Noller and senior Kameron Diermeier contributed six and five points, respectively.

Elk Mound finished 3-for-7 at the free throw line and was 9-for-22 on three-point attempts.

Three Blackhawks finished in double digits. Jeremy Jacobson and Joe Jensen had 11 points  each and Thatcher Walthall added ten points. Baldwin-Woodville’s leading scorer, Evan Clauson, who averages just over 15 points per game was held to just two points by a solid defensive effort from Logan Jerome.

B-W finished 4-for-12 at the line and made eight, three-point shots.

Elmwood-Plum City

Elk Mound welcomed the Wolves of Elmwood-Plum City to its home court Tuesday, February 18.

The Mounders, led by a career high 21 points from senior guard Kameron Diermeier, dominated the Wolves in just about ever category including the score. Elk Mound went on to earn the season and conference sweep over Elmwood-Plum City (2-11, 6-16) with a 75-55 victory.

Diermeier was 2-for-3 from beyond the three-point arc and a perfect 3-for-3 at the charity stripe. He scored 12 in the first half and finished with nine in the second stanza.

“He finished really well around the hoop,” noted Coach Arneson of Diermeier’s play throughout the contest. 

“Kameron also had numerous assists when attacking as well,” added Arneson.

Junior post player Victor Noller scored 13 of his 16 game points in the first half to help the Mounders forge a 37-21 lead at intermission.

Despite the Mounders’ defensive focus on Lucas Glaus, the Wolves leading scorer, he finished above his season average of 23.5 points with 27-point performance by game’s end which included a pair of threes and an 11-for14 effort at the free throw line.  

“We just couldn’t contain Glaus early in the contest. In the second half, we made a few adjustments and held him to only three field goals, but he kept ending up on the charity stripe,” stated Arneson.

Ahead by 16 points at half, Elk Mound was able to keep the lead around 20 points for much of the second half.

“Although we got the W, I was impressed with our team defense. Playing four games in six days is a challenge, but those back to back games are what we will see in regionals,” Arneson said.

Besides Diermeier and Noller, Logan Jerome also finished in  double figures for Elk Mound with 17 points and had a team high 12 rebounds. Cale Knutson added seven boards while Parker Dutzle, Zeb Robinson and Noller had five each.

Elk Mound finished with a 43-20 lead in rebounds and a 16-11 edge in assists and caused the Wolves to turn the ball over 19 times and stole it a dozen times.

Both teams made 14 free throws. EPC finished with five threes to Elk Mound’s three.

Glaus’ 27-point performance topped the Wolves who also got seven from Brewer Link and five points each from Dylan Zeilinger and Landen McDonough.

Glenwood City

Facing the Hilltoppers for the second time in just over a week, the Mounder built a 36-25 halftime advantage when they visited Glenwood City last Friday, February 21.

Victor Noller and Logan Jerome combined for 21 of those points.

Elk Mound was able to maintain a double digits lead until the waning minutes of the contest when the Hilltoppers mounted a rally and sliced the Mounders lead from 12 points to six. 

Elk Mound was able to hold off Glenwood City, however, and took a 61-52 win.

Noller led the Mounders with 15 points which included two threes while Jerome, with some highlight reel slam dunks, finished with 14 points.  

Cale Knutson added nine points and Kameron Diermeier finished with eight.

Elk Mound made four triples and was 7-of-12 at the free throw line while Glenwood City made 4 of its 7 foul shots and tallied a half dozen three pointers.

The Hilltoppers had a pair of double-digit scorers. Tyler Harrington led with 15 points off a trio of threes and two deuces while Brady Thompson sank six two-point hoops and a pair of free throws for 14 points. Brody Olson added nine for Glenwood City and Mitchel Main had six as did Brody Riba.