By Michael S. Hoey
CORRESPONDENT
After a 0-4 start, the Lake Geneva Badger boys basketball team picked up its first two wins of the season back to back last week. The Badgers defeated Brookfield East 52-51 at home on Dec. 10 and Delavan-Darien on the road 61-50 last Thursday.
Before the game against East, coach Darin Lottig had said his team needed a win after playing well but losing close games to DeForest and Waterford. They got two.
The Badger defense held East (3-3) to 12 points in the first half. The Badgers took an 11-8 lead at the end of the first quarter and led 22-12 at the half. East made a run in the second half outscoring Badger 16-10 in the third quarter and 23-20 in the fourth.
East came all the way to take the lead late in the game but the Badgers did not fold. With 15 seconds on the clock Badger inbounded the ball, got it to half court, and called timeout. Lottig said the team ran the designed play after the timeout well but East stopped the initial read. Tony Ashley drove hard to the hoop and made a nice pass to Rob Slagle who put it in at the buzzer.
Ian Weber led the Badgers with 15 points. Slagle added eight. Lincoln Wieseman had 14 rebounds and Jake Kozlowski had nine assists. Josh Byrd led all scorers for East with 21. Mike Eberle and Jacob Wiesmueller each added 11.
The two teams were opposites offensively and it showed in the stat line. Badger attempted just two free throws all night, missing them both, while East was 10 of 17. Lottig said that was a result of the Badgers shooting a lot from the perimeter where they made 10 three-pointers while East drove the ball most of the night.
“It was a good team win,” Lottig said. “Hopefully it’s a sign of things to come from these guys.”
Lottig said the team needs to continue to play within its limitations and play together. He said Colton Andresen got the team off to a great start in the third quarter and Slagle played a good all-around game.
It did carry over to the game against the Comets. The first quarter was even as Badger led 17-16 after one. The Badgers (2-4, 1-2 Southern Lakes Conference) took control with a strong second quarter and led 35-24 at the half. The Comets cut the lead to 44-38 at the end of three but the Badgers put the game away with a 17-12 fourth quarter.
Wieseman led the Badgers with 19. Andresen added 10. Slagle and Ashley both had eight. Isaac Ramos led the Comets (2-6, 0-3 SLC) with 17. Stephan Rodriguez added 13.
The Badgers hosted Westosha Tuesday night and travel to Burlington Friday night.
Wrestlers lose showdown with Demons
In a matchup of SLC contenders, The Badger wrestling team fell just short against Burlington last Tuesday 34-29 in Burlington.
Badger got on the scoreboard first on a pin by Chase Craig (106 pounds) for six points. Burlington came right back with a pin by Ben Hornickle over Alex Martinez (113) to tie the score.
The match stayed close until the Demons opened up a 31-16 lead on a Kyle Crayton decision over Andrew Cychner (170). Then the Badgers battled all the way back to 31-29 on a major decision by Tayler Hildenbrandt over Greg Miller (220). Burlington’s Tyler Kirkeeng won a decision over Carlos Garcia in the final match to preserve the victory for the Demons.
“They had four pins to our two and that was the difference,” Coach Shane Koehl said.
“It was a very tough one to swallow knowing we are a better tem,” Koehl said. “Burlington did what they had to in matches where they were not as good and we didn’t.”
Koehl said it was an exciting dual for the fans coming down to the last heavyweight match, but he felt the Badgers should have had the match won before that match even happened. Koehl did say the Badgers wrestled well in the lightweights and called the wins by Michael Peter, Edgar Ortiz, and Adan Ortiz huge.
The Badgers took third at the Marty Loy Classic Invitational at Fond du Lac on Saturday with 155 points. Wausau West won the invite with 284.5 points.
T.J. Hildenbrandt (195 pounds) went 3-1 and finished second. Andrew Cychner (170) also took second by going 4-1.
Alex Martinez (113, 3-1) and Robert Johnson (220, 3-1) finished third in their weight divisions. Peter (106, 2-2) took fourth.
Badger girls fall to Wilmot
The Badger girls basketball team fell to undefeated Wilmot 57-44 on Dec. 11 at home. Wilmot (6-0, 4-0) jumped out to a 16-8 lead at the end of the first quarter but the Badgers played them evenly after that. Wilmot led 29-18 at the half and outscored the Badgers (2-2, 2-1) just 28-26 in the second half.
“We had some early turnovers and Wilmot did a great job of converting them into scores,” coach David Jooss said of the first quarter. “We got good shots that just did not fall for us.”
Jooss said the team did a better job of spacing the floor and executing the game plan after the first quarter. He said the half-court defense was solid the whole game but transition defense hurt them at times.
Foul trouble in the first half also contributed to the Badger problems, but Jooss said the bench did a great job enabling them to make a run later in the game.
Kari Clements led all scored with 25 for Wilmot. Jenna Damon added 11 and Sarah Vozel had nine. Karina Reeves led the Badgers with 15. Taylar Keenan had nine.
The Badgers played at Milton Tuesday night and travel to Elkhorn tonight. The Badgers will play in their own holiday tournament Dec. 27-28. Badger will open the tournament against Burlington Catholic Central. East Troy faces Slinger in the other semi-final.
Swimmers defeat D-DHS
The Badger swim team beat Delavan-Darien 123-45 on Dec. 11.
The Badgers took first and second in the 200 Yard Medley Relay and the 200 Yard Freestyle (Remy Glogovsky and Tyler Hall). Badger took second, third, and fourth in the 200 Yard IM (Zach Zenner, Tom Ritzman, and Erick Nicia) and first through third place in the 50 Yard Freestyle (Andrew Shane, Nate Hennig, and Jimmy Corpus).
The Badgers also took first through third in the 100 Yard Fly (Zenner, Tony Trajkovich, and Tyler Lininger). Shane won the 100 Yard Freestyle. Glogovsky won the 500 Yard Freestyle. Badger won the 200 and 400 Yard Freestyle Relays. The Badgers took second through fourth in the 100 Yard Backstroke (Lininger, Ritzman, and Corpus).
