Colby rolls Greyhounds, 67-44

Kaden Wiese scored 18 points and was one of four Hornets in double figures Tuesday evening when Colby rolled the Loyal Greyhounds 67-44 in both teams’ Cloverbelt-East opener.

The hometown Hornets had the versatility of their offense on full display against Loyal, showcasing that any one of their starters can take over the offense, depending on what is needed at any given time. The way Colby opened the game on the offensive end served as an example of how the Hornets would spread the ball around throughout the game.

The first nine points of the game were scored by four different players, each of which would go on to put up double digits as the game progressed. Junior Joe Streveler started things off for Colby, taking a steal and turning it into two for the home team. Tucker Meyer followed that up with a basket down in the paint and Wiese hit a three a few possessions later. Then, Tevin Rue snaked his way through the Greyhound defense and was found on a backdoor cut by Caden Healy for an easy layup.

But Loyal hung around in the opening minutes and the Hornets were only up by one after the first seven minutes of gametime. While there had been glimpses of what Colby was capable of, they had not quite been firing on all cylinders on either end of the floor.

The home team seemed to find that second gear as the game shifted into the back half of the first period. Colby went on a 13-0 run over the next four minutes, taking a 21-8 lead that served as the backbone of the Hornets comfortable command over the rest of the game. By halftime, that lead grew to 15 as Colby headed to the locker room up 36-21.

The Hornets only expanded on that lead in the second half. While Loyal whittled it down to 11 at one point early in the period, that would be all the closer the Greyhounds would get. A sequence lasting less than a minute and consisting of back-to-back corner threes from Wiese, followed by a quick steal-turned-layup from Streveler and capped off with a dunk from Healy served as the final nail in the coffin for any hopes Loyal may have had for coming back in the game.

Wiese led the team with 18 points, Rue and Strevler both contributed 12 and Meyer ended the game with 11. Healy had six points, Nathaniel Robida had five and Mateo Lopez ended the game with two. Oscar Zamora worked his way onto the stat sheet with a free throw late in the game and rounded out the scoring with one point. The Hornets will be on the road for their next contest, where they will be traveling to Gilman in search of their second Cloverbelt-East win. The Pirates, meanwhile, will be looking for their first victory of the 2022-23 season. Thus far, Gilman’s squad is 0-5 and is coming off their biggest loss of the year, a crushing 89-17 defeat at the hands of fellow Cloverbelt-East foe Owen-Withee. Gilman is only averaging 38.8 points per game thus far and does not have a player averaging in the double digits for scoring. In comparison, the Hornets have been averaging 64.5 points per game and have three players who have averaged over 10 points per game. Tip-off between the two teams is set for 7:15 p.m.