By Dan Truttschel
Correspondent
As far as East Troy High School boys basketball coach Darryl Rayfield is concerned, it’s never too early to start planning for the post-season.
And that’s why he fills the Trojans’ non-conference schedule with challenging opponents.
Monday night was just another case of that.
East Troy battled back from a 10-point halftime deficit and had its chances before host Cedarburg pulled away for a 66-58 victory. The loss dropped East Troy to 5-4 overall.
The Trojans returned to Rock Valley Conference play Tuesday night against visiting Edgerton. East Troy was 4-0 in the RVC heading into that contest.
It wasn’t difficult to find a key Monday night, Rayfield said, as his team was just three for five from the free-throw line, while Cedarburg was 24 for 27.
“We attacked the rim the whole night,” he said. “I’m very upset with that discrepancy.
“(But) we have to turn this into a learning situation as we move forward and respond to it if it happens to us again.”
East Troy, which outscored Cedarburg 35-33 in the second half, trailed by just five points with 2:39 left.
But the Trojans came up empty on five straight offensive possessions, and that was the difference, Rayfield said.
There were positives, he added.
“It was a great game on the road against a defensive-minded team who has good talent,” he said.
Jacob Nixon led the Trojans with 19 points, followed by Joe Ciriacks with 18 and Jared Remsza with 11.
The game also gave Rayfield a chance to match coaching strategies with one of the state’s all-time bests in Cedarburg’s Tom Diener, who recently posted his 500th career victory.
Rayfield downplayed that matchup, however.
“Diener is a good coach,” he said. “But he always had very, very good players. It will always be about (that).”
Following Tuesday’s contest, the Trojans are back in action Friday night when they host Evansville in a 7:15 p.m. RVC matchup.
