Patriots Face the Humphrey-Lindsay Holy Family Bulldogs
As the snow started falling, the official basketball season for the Patriots began as well. Their season opener was held on Saturday, December 1, in Humphrey. Both the girls and boys were excited to finally start their season, coming off of great jamboree games.
The night started with the girls JV, followed by the boys JV. Both teams fought hard, playing very close games. The girls JV successfully came out with the win, with the score of 32-22. Even though the boys fought hard, they ended up losing the game, 8-21. After the JV games ended, the varsity girls were ready to open their season.
The first quarter of the girls’ game was a very close one with the score tied 8-8 at the end. This was the story of the second quarter as well. The Patriots stepped it up a little bit, but so did the Bulldogs. At the end of the first half the score was 24-21, with the Patriots on top.
After half time, the Patriots buckled down on defense and held the Bulldogs to just 7 points in the third quarter, while the Pats scored 10.
At the end of the third quarter, the score was 34-28, with the Patriots ahead. To win this game, the Patriots knew they had to stop the Bulldogs on the offensive end. Fortunately, they did just that and held the Bulldogs to only 7 points again, while they scored 10.
The final score of the game was 44-35, with the Patriots winning their season opener.
They were led by junior Ashlynn Novotny and seniors Kaegan Held and Hannah Kasik. Novotny put up 14 points and 6 rebounds, while Held contributed 12 points and 5 rebounds. Kasik added 8 points and 5 steals.
“What a great way to start off our season!” Hannah Kasik said. “We made the right shots at key times, which paid off. As a team, we had great energy on and off the court. Even the crowd was into it. It was just a fun, exciting game!”
Head Coach, Matt Murren, said, “The girls showed tremendous heart and effort to go on the road and get a great victory to start the season out. The energy throughout the night on the floor, on the bench, and in the stands made it a fun night to compete. We had numerous players step up and make important plays in the crunch time!“
As the boys varsity watched the girls varsity win their first game of the season, they wanted to do the exact same thing.
Unfortunately, they didn’t start off the game like they wanted to.
In the first quarter they only scored 4 points, while the Bulldogs scored 27. The Patriots had better defense the second quarter, holding the Bulldogs to only 10 points, but the Patriots only scored 6 points. The score at the end of the first half was 10-37, with the Bulldogs on top.
The Patriots came out of half time and played much better. They got their offensive game rolling and were playing good defense as well. By the end of the third quarter, the Patriots had scored 12 points, while the Bulldogs scored 15.
To start the fourth quarter, the score was 22-52, Bulldogs on top. The Patriots had to play a very good fourth quarter to come out with the win, but unfortunately, they didn’t do enough. They held the Bulldogs to 9 points, but the Patriots only ended up scoring 12, making the ending score 34-61.
The Patriots didn’t have the outcome they wanted, but they definitely fought hard.
Senior Daniel Beller said, “It didn’t go as we expected, but it was a good learning experience for the freshmen we have playing. We hope to improve and come out with our first win in our upcoming games.”
Beller led the team with 8 points and 11 rebounds. Sophomore Tommy McEvoy contributed 8 points and 9 rebounds.
Head Coach Jeff Bachman said, “Our opening game did not go as planned. We got ourselves in early foul trouble and didn't help ourselves out by shooting poorly. We did get some good performances from several players and we look forward to getting back to work in practice and getting better.”
1 2 3 4 Final
C-L 8 16 10 10 44
H/HLF 8 13 7 7 35
Individual Stats: (points, rebounds, assists, steals)
Ashlynn Novotny--14, 6, 6, 2; Hannah Kasik--8, 3, 0, 5; Beth Wiese--4, 4, 1, 2; Kaegan Held--12, 5, 1, 3; Halee Steffensmeier--2, 5, 0, 2; Paige Moore--2, 6, 0, 0; Alissa Kasik--2, 0, 0, 0; Cassidy Hoffman--0, 1, 0, 0; Bailey Lemburg--0, 1, 0, 0
1 2 3 4 Final
C-L 4 6 12 12 34
H/HLF 27 10 15 9 61
Individual Stats: (points, rebounds, assists, steals)
Lance Paprocki--0, 1, 1, 1; Jarred Novotny--6, 3, 1, 0; Daniel Beller--8, 11, 0, 0; Travis Stanley--0, 3, 0, 0; Trevor Zulkoski--1, 1, 1, 0; Isaak Wiese--2, 1, 0, 0; Carter Hanel--7, 10, 0, 0; Logan Schroeder--0, 2, 0, 0; Tommy McEvoy--8, 9, 2, 2; Mitchel Beeson--2, 2, 0, 0, Douglas Pocasangre--0, 0, 0, 1