Falcons drop two, playoffs start next week

The Abbotsford Falcons boys basketball team dropped a pair of home games over the weekend, falling to Marawood North rival Rib Lake on Friday and visiting Kohler on Saturday.

The losses push the Falcons record to 3-20 overall and 1-14 in league play. The Falcons will close out their regular season on the road against the Phillips Loggers. Abby lost a tight 55-48 contest to them earlier in the season, and will look to turn the tables on their hosts.

The Rib Lake Redmen (6-15, 4-11 MNC) used a dominant first half to get on top of Abbotsford as they defeated the Falcons for the second time this season for the series sweep.

Logan Blomberg and Michael Borchardt combined for 33 of the Redmen’s 72 points, with Blomberg leading all players with 22 points as Rib Lake ran out to a 47-24 advantage after one half of play.

Abbotsford had trouble keeping Rib Lake off the glass, and gave the Redmen 28 trips to the charity stripe. Rib Lake converted on 19 of those free throw attempts, but the Falcons played better on defense in the second half, holding Rib Lake to 25 points.

Unfortunately, the Falcons offense continued to sputter, and Abby could not cut into the Redmen’s lead, finishing with 18 points in the last stanza.

Brandon Diedrich was the lone Falcon in double figures, finishing with 11 points. Esteban Gomez had nine points on the night.

Jacob Hirsch was a bright spot for the Falcons, scoring a season high seven points on three of four shooting. Senior forward Brandon Hawkey also had seven points. Adam Diedrich scored five, and Preston Bunkleman rounded things out with three points.

Kohler, 83-40

The Abbotsford Falcons and Kohler Bombers finally had their long-awaited game this season. The Falcons were meant to play Kohler over the holidays, but COVID-19 had other plans.

In what will be their last home game of the 2021-22 season, the Falcons suffered their fifteenth straight loss of the year as the Bombers flew out to a 42-15 advantage at the end of the first half.

Kohler lived up to their namesake, dropping more bombs in the second half as they torpedoed Abby’s comeback hopes with a 41-25 mark thanks to a trio of double digit efforts from Kohler’s Jalen Paul, Trey Keller and Charlie Roeder. Paul had a game high 19, Keller added 15 and Roeder had a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds.

Abby’s Brandon Diedrich turned in one of his best games of the year, scorching the nets and the Bombers for 18 points. Brandon Hawkey added seven and JV Castillo scored six points.

Preston Bunkleman tallied three points and Gatlin Faber and Oswaldo Tomas each scored two points while Esteban Gomez was limited to one point.

The WIAA boys basketball playoffs will begin next week with the regional quarterfinals on Tuesday night.

The Falcons were handed the twelfth seed on their side of the bracket, but won’t have to travel very far, as they draw five seeded Colby in a cross-town rematch. Tip-off for the March 2 game will be at 7 p.m.