Girls lose to Union Grove, beat Edgerton
By Michael S. Hoey
Correspondent
The Lake Geneva Badger boys basketball team dominated Delavan-Darien on the road through the two middle quarters on Dec. 9 and then withstood a late rally to win 72-58.
The first quarter was even as Badger built up a modest 18-12 lead with less than two minutes to go only to surrender two baskets to Will Brown and San Alder and see their lead reduced to 18-16 at the break.
The second and third quarters belonged to Badger. The two teams traded baskets to start the quarter, then Badger started drawing fouls. Badger made five out of six free throws to take a 25-18 lead. Lincoln Wieseman then drove the baseline and scored and hit a three-pointer after a Comet turnover to make it 30-18.
Two three-pointers by the Comets sandwiched around a two-point basket by Badger’s Chase Kruger kept the Comets afloat temporarily, but Badger went on a 10-2 run to close out the half with a 42-26 lead.
Aided by two blocked shots by Austin Jackson that led to breakaway baskets at the other end, Badger expanded its lead to 20 early in the third quarter. The two teams then traded three-pointers as Joe Freeman and Jake Berhorst connected for Badger and Brown answered both times for Delavan-Darien. Led by six points from Wieseman, the Badgers outscored the Comets 11-7 to finish the quarter with their biggest lead of the night at 63-39.
The Comets, playing without Jesse Collins, who missed the game with an injury, outscored Badger 19-9 in the fourth quarter to make things interesting. Brown and Jayce Crull both hit three-pointers early and Badger suffered through four possessions in a row with turnovers, three of which led to Comet points. Delavan-Darien was able to get the deficit down to 12 but that was the best they could do.
Wieseman led all scorers with 22 points. Berhorst added 18 and Bryant Sontag had 13. The Comets (2-4, 0-2 Southern Lakes Conference) were led by Brown’s 18. Lucas DeLara added 13. The Badgers made 10 three-pointers, and the Comets made nine.
The Badgers (3-1, 2-0 SLC) also defeated Westosha Central (3-3, 1-1) at home 79-69 on Friday. Badger travels to Burlington Friday night and then will not play again until Jan. 2 at Whitewater.
Badger girls split pair
The Badger girls lost an SLC showdown with Union Grove (5-1, 4-0) 41-36 at home Dec. 9. The game was a defensive struggle as the Broncos led just 6-3 after one quarter and 18-12 at the half.
“I thought our defense was good and I thought we executed our offense really well,” Coach David Jooss said. “Shots just didn’t fall for us.”
Jooss said Union Grove played good defense, which might have contributed to the missed shots, but he was still happy with the types of shots his team got.
“Union Grove is a good team,” he said, pointing out that the Broncos are undefeated in the conference and have already beaten SLC-favorite Waterford.
The offense picked up a little for both teams in the second half and the game remained tight. Union Grove’s Jordan Weidner led all scorers with 15. No one else had more than six. Badger was led by Lily Quinn’s nine points.
Badger came back with a 50-31 non-conference road win over Edgerton on Friday. Badger’s defense was good again as Edgerton (2-4) was held to single digits in every quarter including just five in the second quarter as Badger built up a 28-14 halftime lead.
Badger (4-2, 2-1) pulled away in the second half. Jennifer Freeman led all scorers with 23. Quinn added nine. Kellan Schmidt led Edgerton with seven.
Badger played at Elkhorn on Tuesday night and travels to Burlington on Friday. Badger will host the Badger Invitational on Jan. 2 and 3.
Wrestlers down Broncos
The Badgers defeated Union Grove 55-9 on Dec. 11. Individual winners for Badger included Michael Peter (145 pounds) by technical fall, Joe VanDiest (152) by 7-4 decision, Tony Howard (160) by 10-2 major decision, Zach Leonard (170) by fall, Reggie Kelly (182) by fall, Nick Halpin (195) by 5-3 decision, Stevie Kraus (113) by fall, Robby Mutimer (120) by 5-2 decision, Tim Coyne (126) by fall, George Somerville (132) by 12-0 major decision, and Chase Craig (138) by 10-4 decision.
Swim team tops Elkhorn
The Badger co-op swim team won a conference showdown with Elkhorn 99-71 on Dec. 9.
Individual first-place finishes were turned in by R.J. Szweda in the 200-meter individual medley (2:34.11) and the 100-meter breaststroke (1:15.11), Andrew Shane in the 50-meter freestyle (26.30) and the 100-meter freestyle (56.76), and Alex Kulik in the 400-meter freestyle (5:01.98).
Badger also won the 200-meter freestyle relay (Kulik, Emmett Mathews, Jimmy Corpus, Tony Trajkovich; 1:53.15), the 400-meter freestyle relay (Shane, Kulik, Mathews, and Szweda; 4:04.32), and the 200-meter medley relay (Shane, Corpus, Szweda, and Logan Rogers; 2:03.46).
Badger also finished tenth at the Fort Atkinson Invitational on Saturday with 106 points. McFarland, with former Badger swimmer Wes Lagerhausen as an assistant coach, won the event with 430 points.
Shane led the way with a second-place finish in the 100-yard freestyle (49.90) and a third in the 200-yard freestyle (1:53.92). Szweda took fourth in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:06.80).
