Loyal boys come up short against Marshfield Columbus

Although they didn’t pull out the win, the Loyal Greyhounds kept the Columbus Dons on their toes when they faced them at Marshfield last Friday.

Heading into the boys basketball game, Loyal coach Brandon DeSmet knew his team would have to make protecting the ball a priority, and they did, keeping turnovers to a minimum compared to previous games.

“When it comes to taking care of the basketball, we did an outstanding job with that. The last couple weeks we’ve been talking about that. We also did a good job of moving the zone with cutters,” he said.

That ball control and confidence on Loyal’s part showed as the game began neck-and-neck. The Greyhounds even took the lead to start. With Loyal leading 7-6 and 12:30 on the clock, Loyal’s Cain Toufar snagged a rebound from his teammate’s three-point attempt and put it back in for two. Columbus responded with a two-pointer from Emmitt Konieczny, a frequent scorer for the Dons that night. Soon the teams were tied at 11. Loyal attempted a three that bounced in and back out. Shortly after that, Loyal attempted another three that didn’t go in, but Toufar was there to pick up the rebound again and make it in. However, Columbus answered back with a three from Emmitt Konieczny to take the lead, and began to build on that lead with baskets from Lucas Kreklau, while in the meantime the Greyhounds missed a few shots and lost some of their initial momentum.

With a little less than three minutes remaining in the half, the Dons were ahead 24-17. Jacob Schill put a dent into that lead when he hit a three for Loyal with 2:21 left. Columbus then got a layup plus a free throw to make it 27-20. On the next play, Loyal missed a mid-range shot, but Toufar repeated his now-familiar trick of grabbing the rebound and sending it up for a score. “Cain really has a knack for the ball. He does a good job of finding it off the rim,” noted Loyal coach Brandon DeSmet. Toufar’s basket would have left the score 27-22, but Columbus’ Blake Jakobi hit a buzzer beater to make it 30-22 at halftime. The second half started with heavy defensive pressure by both teams, neither finding their way to the hoop. After a minuteand a-half, Columbus broke through with an assist from Blake Jakobi to Kreklau for a score. Then Loyal’s Isaac Jakobi missed a basket, but was fouled on the way and put one in for Loyal to make it 32-23, Columbus leading. As the half continued, a nine- or 10-point gap remained. The Greyhounds kept the Dons from running away with the game, but also weren’t able to gain on them, as the teams alternated scoring baskets.

In the latter half of the second half, though, the shots just weren’t falling for Loyal and Columbus started to pull away.

“We went cold at the end. We lost our rhythm and got tired,” said DeSmet.

Part of the problem, too, was that Columbus kept a tight guard and made it hard for Loyal to get the ball inside.

“Offensively, we need to find more highlow passes,” said DeSmet.

By 5:36 remaining, Columbus had Greyhounds,

stretched its lead to 16 points, 53-39. Not giving up, the Greyhounds fought back with a three-pointer from Reed Stieglitz to make it an 11-point game. However, that is the closest the Greyhounds would come for the rest of the game. After that, the Greyhounds gave up four points to the Dons due to fouls, while only gaining one point themselves.

“We gave up a lot of free throws. We need to work on not fouling their shooters,” said DeSmet.

The final result was a 59-43 Dons win, a score that didn’t totally reflect how competitive the game truly was.

Although his team didn’t get the win, DeSmet saw several things to be proud of with how they played.

For one,“Defensively, our challenge was to get to all their shooters. We did a pretty good job of that,” he said.

DeSmet also thought his team did an excellent job of not letting themselves get dragged into racing up and down the court.

“That’s something we stressed all week, is tempo, and being able to slow the game down in our minds — especially because Columbus likes to play fast, so we have to slow it down. We did an outstanding job of that.”

DeSmet praised a couple of players specifically for their efforts.

“Connor had the tough task of going against Emmitt all night. He kept on him and forced him to take tough shots,” said DeSmet.

Additionally, “Reed had been struggling somewhat with his confidence as a shooter. Tonight he was knocking them down, so that was great to see,” he said.

Loyal will have a chance at redemption, as they play Columbus at home Friday at 7:30 p.m. After that, they have only three more regular season games before the conference crossover and playoffs.

Junior basketball player Jacob Schill makes a 3-pointer for the Loyal Greyhounds in their game at Columbus Feb. 3.

VALORIE BRECHT/STAFF PHOTO

NGL middle school wrestlers take third at conference

The Neillsville/Greenwood/Loyal (NGL) middle school wrestling team took part in the Cloverbelt Conference Tournament Feb. 3 in Abbotsford. Shown above, NGL’s Talan Suda controls his opponent during the event. Eight teams competed, with NGL taking third place as a team. Individual results were as follows. Taking first place were the following wrestlers, listed with their weight class: Boden Opelt, 72-82 pounds; Evan Friemoth, 78-88; Zak Kind, 200-225; Holden Lomax, 92-100; Mike Harris, 115-123; and Jackson Meyer, 266-275. Chase Lindner (80-90) took second place. Taking third place were Mason Anding, 91100; Suda, 101-105; and Broden Kauth, 150-169. Wrestlers earning fourth place were Aiden Ruzic, 106-113; Jerome Buchanan, 128-134; and Pearson Fausett, 135-147.

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO