Hornets top Abby in rivalry duel, 83-61
Fans packed the seats of Dick Gunderson Memorial Gymnasium Monday evening as the Colby Hornets and the Abbotsford Falcons collided in a nonconference game. In a physical and fastpaced game, the Hornets defended their home court, downing Abbotsford 83-61.
Pushing the ball and being aggressive in their half court sets seemed to be the strategy for both teams, which in the early going led to a large number of fouls. Both teams were in the bonus after just six minutes having elapsed off the game clock, though neither team could take advantage with the extra free throw attempts. These early fouls also meant that both teams had to deal with players in foul trouble early in the game.
The foul trouble seemed to have a larger effect on the Falcons. Abbotsford had led by slim margins in the opening minutes thanks to scoring from Brandon and Adam Diedrich, as well as Esteban Gomez. However, with Gomez and Adam Diedrich needing to sit after suffering some early fouls, Abbotsford found it more difficult to find points in their half court offense. Colby also needed to make adjustments, and while some offensive fouls would lead to a few empty possessions for the Hornets, a backdoor-cut turned layup from Joe Streveler gave the Hornets a 21-20 lead and sparked a 13-2 run for the home team. While keeping their fast pace offense and aggressive defense intact, Colby cut down on fouls during this stretch to pull out to a 32-22 lead.
Gomez and Diedrich both returned to the game shortly after this stretch and with their return, Abbotsford started to get more open looks on the offensive side of the ball, cutting the lead back to six on an Adam Diedrich floater with under five minutes left in the half.
Just as the Falcons seemed to be getting themselves back into the game, the Hornets had the answer, Mateo Lopez hitting a three on the next possession to halt the small run by the Falcons. Lopez had 18 points in the first half for Colby and was a large part of why the home team found itself up 48-33 at halftime.
Colby expanded its lead early in the second period, Tucker Meyer and Streveler combining for three quick baskets to start the half. Abbotsford responded with three consecutive of their own, Brandon Diedrich draining a three from the top of the arc and Gomez driving into the lane and getting two layups to fall.
While the Falcons had cut the lead to 14, they could not quite match the firepower of Colby over the middle portion of the half, the Hornets going on a 14-7 run to push their advantage over twenty points. Meyer and Caden Healy led the charge for Colby in the second half, with Meyer scoring 15 points and Healy contributing 10. Eight second-half points from Adam Diedrich and three made three-point shots from Brandon Diedrich kept the Falcons even over the rest of the game, but Colby maintained its lead to defeat their crosstown rivals by over twenty points.
The win was Colby’s fourth straight and the 83 points scored was a season high for the now 5-2 Hornets. The Falcons fall on the opposite side of the spectrum, still in search of their second win of the season.
Meyer scored a game high 25 points for Colby and brought down 12 rebounds in the victory. Lopez ended the game with 20 points and led the Hornets in assists and steals, of which he had eight and six respectively. Healy was highly efficient on the offensive side of the ball, shooting 9-11 from the field and scoring 18 points. He also had seven rebounds and an impressive five blocks. Streveler was the fourth Hornet in double figures, putting in a solid performance of 14 points, seven rebounds, five assists, and three steals. Also scoring for Colby were Kaden Wiese, who had four points and seven rebounds, and Tevin Rue, who had two points.
The Falcons were led by Brandon Diedrich on the offensive side of the ball. The senior ended the game with 20 points and seven rebounds. Adam Diedrich was also in double digits, scoring 15 for Abbotsford and bringing down six rebounds himself. Gomez had nine points and seven assists, Grayson Totzke was 3-5 from the field and ended the game with seven points, AJ Brodhagen had six points and Evan Reis and Gatlin Faber rounded out the scoring for the Falcons with two points each.
The Hornets got a 27-point performance from Tevin Rue to find a win against the Columbus Dons, traveling to Marshfield to take down their Cloverbelt-East foe 77-72. The win marked another conference victory for Colby as the Hornets have started their season 3-0 in Cloverbelt play.
In a game that saw a number of lead changes and three-point shots galore, Colby found themselves in a battle with the 6-4 Dons, who were also 2-0 in the conference before the game. While down in the opening minutes, the Hornets went on a 14-0 run, capped off by two threepoint shots from Rue, to pull out to a 2513 lead with just under four minutes to play in the half. Columbus went on a run of their own as the half came to a close, pulling back within five thanks in part to some clutch three-point shooting of their own.
Columbus came out of halftime with momentum still on their side and a three from Lucas Kreklau put the Dons back on top 39-38. The home team held a slim lead over the Hornets as the game progressed, but Colby never allowed the deficit to grow larger than four points, keeping themselves within striking distance. The persistence paid off as a couple of empty possessions from Columbus allowed the Hornets to reclaim the lead following consecutive three’s from Rue and Tucker Meyer. Meyer’s basket gave the Hornets a 58-55 advantage with just under eight minutes to play.
The Dons were not done yet, and they quickly retook the lead on a Emmitt Konieczny corner three. However, a transition layup from Rue put Colby back on top, 63-62, with four minutes left in the game. As the game moved into its final minutes, free throws from Mateo Lopez, Joseph Streveler, and Rue staved off a potential Columbus comeback and the Hornets took home the win to remain undefeated in conference play.
In a game that featured 54 combined three-point shot attempts, the Hornets made 13 of their 34, six of which were courtesy of Rue. The Dons, meanwhile, shot 50 percent from beyond the arc, connecting on 10 of their 20 attempts from that range. Both teams also shot efficiently from the free throw line, with Colby going 12-14 and Columbus shooting 14-17 from the charity stripe.
Rue’s 27 points led the Hornets in scoring, as did his two steals. Meyer ended the game with a double-double, scoring 18 points while going 4-7 from three-point range and bringing down 10 rebounds. Kaden Wiese also scored in double digits for Colby, recording 13 points and leading the team in assists with five. Also scoring for the Hornets were Streveler with eight, Lopez with seven, and Caden Healy with four.
Abbotsford once again struggled in the second half after a competitive first half last Friday night against Stratford. The Falcons, down only six points after one period of play, could not keep pace with the Tigers, falling 72-35.
After going down 11-0, Adam Diedrich got the Falcons on the board six minutes into the game with a basket in the paint. The basket spurred a 15-4 run for the Falcons over the next four minutes of game time, with Adam and Brandon Diedrich supplying much of the offensive firepower for Abbotsford to bring them back into the game. Stratford started to pull away once more, but three-point shots from Blake Bargender, Esteban Gomez, and Brandon Diedrich late in the half brought them back within four. A late possession shot saw Stratford take a 32-26 lead heading into half, but after failing to score for the first six minutes, the Falcons found themselves in a decent position after one period of play. The second half was a complete shift in fortunes for Abbotsford. The Tiger defense held the Falcons to just nine points over the entire half, which was only two more than the Falcons’ season low. Meanwhile, led by Ashton Wrensch, Stratford’s offense scored even more efficiently in the second half, putting up 40 to create the lopsided final.
Turnover differential played a large part in the Falcons’ loss, with Abbotsford committing 29 turnovers to just six for Stratford.
Brandon Diedrich led the team with 11 points and Adam Diedrich contributed nine points and led the team with 10 rebounds. Bargender had six points and three assists, Gomez had five points and Evan Reis and Noah Schraufnagel each had two.
