Hornets suffer last second loss to Athens

The Colby boys basketball team suffered their second loss of the season on Monday evening, falling to the Athens 6765 on their home court. Bluejays’ senior Aiden Janke drained a game-tying three with 17 seconds left and then followed it with a buzzer-beater off the backboard as time expired to secure the win for Athens.

It was an ending that was tough to swallow for a Hornets squad that had just regained the lead in the closing minutes. After seeing their small halftime lead fade away as the second period progressed, Colby had battled back to retake that lead with under two minutes to play. But the two clutch shots from Janke left the Hornets on the outside looking in as the Bluejays celebrated the victory.

A back and forth first half ultimately saw the Hornets coming out just ahead with a 32-28 lead. Colby spread the ball around on offense, getting 10 points from Tucker Meyer, eight from Kaden Wiese and seven from Tevin Rue in the first half. Meanwhile, Athens was largely a one man show in the first half, with Connor Sheahan scoring 15 of the team’s 28 points. Colby had kept the Bluejays’ top scorer, Janke, relatively quiet over the first 18 minutes, only allowing him to score six points over the course of the first half.

Colby’s offense dried up as the second half began, scoring only three points in the first six minutes of play, allowing the Bluejays to go on a 13-3 run and retake the lead. Wiese finally got the Hornets back on track, nailing a 21-footer from beyond the arc, but a barrage of threes from Athens kept a resurgent Colby squad at arms’ length.

As the game pushed into its final moments, Colby received some late game firepower from Caden Healy, who scored eight of his 11 points as the Hornets pushed to regain the lead late in the game. The senior tied the game at 58-58 with a made free throw and Colby took the lead not long after. Rue and Joe Streveler trapped Sheahan before stripping the ball away from the Bluejays’ guard and tossing it to Wiese for an easy layup to give the Hornets a 60-59 lead. The Hornets built a two-possession cushion as the game pushed into the final minute, but Athens went to one of their best offensive weapons in Janke to close out the game. The senior hit two clutch shots, icing the game with a final, unbalanced shot from five feet out to give his team the 67-65 victory.

It was a valiant effort from the home team, which had to try to overcome a ridiculous number of made three-point shots from an Athens team that had been shooting just over 25 percent from beyond the arc coming into the game. The Bluejays converted 11 threepoint attempts Monday evening, with seven of those courtesy of Sheahan.

Colby was led in scoring by Meyer and Wiese, both of whom scored 16 points. Healy added 11 and Rue contributed nine. Streveler had six, Nathaniel Robida finished with four and Mateo Lopez ended with three to round out the scoring for the Hornets.

Colby will look to get back to .500 next week Tuesday, Dec. 13 when they invite the Loyal Greyhounds for their first Cloverbelt-East game of the season. Loyal is 2-1 through their first three games of the season, having just defeated Thorp 47-40. The game is set to start at 7:15 p.m.