Turtle Lake sails into Boyceville, gets win

by Sam Ripp

The Boyceville boys’ basketball team was back in action Monday night, January 25 in Boyceville to take on the Turtle Lake Lakers. The Bulldogs were coming off of their first win of the season after downing rival Glenwood City their last time out and were looking to make it two in a row Monday.

Unfortunately, Boyceville  came up short in a 61-47 non-conference loss to Turtle Lake.

 In the first half both teams came out cold from the floor and halfway through the first Turtle Lake lead 15-14.

The second part of the first half the Lakers started to show their stifling defense. They only allowed five points in the final nine minutes before halftime. All five points came from senior Hunter Anderson who had a team high 15 points in the game. Jonah Kahl hit a big three towards the end of the first half to put the Lakers up 26-17 with under 30 seconds left. Hunter Anderson had a huge steal with only 12 seconds left before half and laid it in for two just before half cutting the Lakers halftime lead to 26-19.

The second half start for both teams looked just like the first half for awhile as both teams struggled to get that first basket to drop.

Caleb Peterson finally broke through with a layup with over two minutes gone in the half before Turtle Lake could crack through.

It took the Bulldogs over another minute to finally get their first points of the second half as it was Hunter Anderson with a lefty floater that dropped.

The Lakers were in control for most of the second half as they built their lead to nine points before the Bulldogs started to chip away at it. Boyceville got close with just over 11 minutes left in the game as Buddy Hanestad hit the layup and got fouled and completed the old fashion three-point play. The Lakers were trying to extend their lead but the Bulldogs wouldn’t let it get out of hand as Bryce Boda started to get hot from the field. He finished with 12 points on the night.

A big possession for the Lakers followed a missed free throw. The visitors corraled two offensive rebounds before Nicolas Thill finally laid it in for two giving them a five-point lead with just over six minutes remaining.

It was back and forth a little bit longer until Cole Herzan and Jonah Kahl started to knock down huge free throws to open up the game. They connected on 12 of 14 free throws in the final nine minutes to give them their largest lead of the game at 14.

The Lakers would take this one on the road by a score of 61-47. The loss would drop the Bulldogs to 1-13 on the year.

Despite the loss head coach Ben Luer found some positives in the game.

“We are starting to build some chemistry as a team, I feel like we are in every game,” said Luer. With the Bulldogs only having two seniors on the team, it looks like a bright future in the coming years. “From here on out is positive cause the next two years should be fun,” said Luer.

The Bulldogs will be back in action at home Thursday January 28th against Durand and tipoff at 7:30pm.