Loyal girls, boys win by 24+ points over Colby

The Colby Hornets’ sting was nowhere to be found as the Loyal Greyhounds basketball teams invaded the Colby gym on Friday night. The Lady Hounds opened the doubleheader with a resounding 55-29 win over their opponents. Loyal went into the locker room at the half with a 31-14 lead. In the second half, the girls continued to increase their lead to put the game on ice. Addysen Wolf led the Greyhounds in scoring with 21 points. Olivia Nikolai and Autumn Zvolena chipped in 15 and 13 points, respectively. Annika Schley, Jordynn Corder and Mallory Jakobi each chipped in 2 points.

A23-point loss to Colby in early December gave the Greyhound boys incentive for payback. It looked promising as the Hounds jumped out to an early lead, only to see Colby go on a 10-0 run to take the lead. The Greyhounds refused to give up as they battled back to take a 26-24 lead at halftime. Colby stayed within striking distance until Loyal went on a seven-minute, 18-7 run to pretty much salt away the game.

As the saying goes, defense wins ballgames, and Loyal proved that by holding the Hornets to 39 points, 30 points below their conference average. Loyal held Colby’s leading scorer, Joseph Streveler, to 19 points, after he scored 41 points against Owen-Withee. No other Hornet scored more than 5.

Loyal’s offense was clicking, with 63 points scored in all and three players in double digits. Bryce Deegan led the way with 16 points. Jacob Schill had 13 and Reed Stieglitz added 12. Joe Treffinger scored 6 points. Hunter Walter had 5. Cain Toufar scored 4. Landyn Johnston added 3. Isaac Jakobi and Rhett Lamovec each had 2.

Loyal hit nine 3-pointers. Sharpshooter Schill made four of them, Deegan had three, and Treffi nger and Johnston each had one.