By Chris Bennett
Correspondent
Westosha Central outscored the Elkhorn Area High School boys basketball team by seven points in the second half and beat the Elks 53-47 Feb. 12 in a Southern Lakes Conference game at home.
The Elks (6-13, 2-10 SLC) played a non-conference game Tuesday at Monona Grove (15-3) and play a SLC game Friday at Delavan-Darien (11-7, 7-5 SLC).
The loss to the Falcons (13-5, 10-2 SLC) is the Elks’ 10th of the season by less than 10 points.
“I think we believe we are capable of beating anyone in our conference, and just need to find a way to get over the hump,” Elks coach Josh Skatrud said.
Waterford beat the Elks 66-50 Jan. 22 in a SLC game at Elkhorn. Aside from that 15-point loss, every loss of the Elks in SLC play is by 10 points or less.
Against the SLC-leading Falcons the Elks led at halftime by one points – 24-23.
“We played really well defensively, and I’m proud of our effort,” Skatrud said. “We were shorthanded due to Alex Easterday being out, but we had some guys really step up. We executed our game plan defensively really well and gave ourselves a shot to win.”
Easterday is the Elks’ leading scorer and averages 21.2 points per game. The Falcons outscored the Elks 30-23 in the second half.
“Unfortunately, we just could not get quite enough offense going in the second half and came up just short,” Skatrud said. “It was a tough loss, but we did a lot of good things.”
Dayne Fisher led the Elks with a game-high 22 points. Shane Piasecki added 12 points.
Tre Williams led Central with 14 points, one of four Falcons to score in double figures.
Falcons’ coach James Hyllberg said it was about drawing fouls in the second half, resulting in Ryan Shiltz fouling out for Ekhorn.
“They played strong and we were trying to get contact,” Hyllberg said.
Hall, who notched a double-double with 11 points and 12 boards, sparked the second half rally with five straight points to pull Westosha Central ahead 28-24, holding the lead for the rest of the contest.
Along with Hall and Graveley, 5-11 junior guard Tre Williams scored a team-leading 14 points, including nine in the first half with Nic Frederick adding 10.
Frederick drained both of his 3-pointers in the second half.
The balanced offensive attack did not come as a surprise for Skatrud.
“With them being first place in conference, we know they got some talented guys,” Skatrud said. “We tried to turn it into our game, a little more physical, and slow it down.”
The Elks dropped to 6-13 (2-10 SLC) after Friday’s loss.
Next for Westosha Central are Burlington and Badger, both of whom the Falcons beat earlier in the season.
