Falcons falter against ‘Bucs, losing skid now six
It’s been a roller coaster season for the Abbotsford boys basketball team thus far. The first month has witnessed some impressive individual performances, but precious little in the way of victories.
The Falcons dropped their most recent game on a Friday night road game with fellow Marawood - North member, the Prentice Buccaneers, 56-49. As with the majority of their games, the Falcons remain close through much of the game, but struggled to close things out, or find a consistent second scorer to compliment Falcon senior wing Cade Faber.
Faber came into the Friday’s game fresh off a 29 point, 16 rebound effort against Loyal at home Monday, Dec. 14. In a normal year, Abbotsford would have played the Chequamegon Screaming Eagles the following night, but Chequamegon has elected not to start its winter sports season until January.
That four day hiatus showed as the Falcons had their slowest first half of the season against the top ranked team in the Marawood - North.
The Buccaneers held the Falcons to just 12 points in the first half. Faber scored 11 of those. Bryce Draper was the only other Abbotsford player to score.
Prentice spent most of the night relying on the hot hand of senior guard Trent Heikkinen, who scored 14 of his game high 32 points on the first half. The Falcons did not allow any other Buccaneer to score more than eight points, but were down 29-12 at the break.
The Falcons shook the rust off after that first half, and were much improved in the second. Faber scored in bunches, dropping 16 on Prentice in the second half for a team high 27, which brings his season average to 21.7 points a game.
Brandon Diedrich knocked down a pair of threes, Draper hit a triple, as did freshman JV Castillo. Diedrich scored six and Brandon Hawkey and Draper added four. Castillo finished with three and Adam Diedrich added three.
The Falcons out-scored Prentice 34 to 30 in the last frame, but it was not enough to overcome their slow first half, and Abby fell for the sixth straight time this season.
