Patriot Boys Defeated in EHC Tourney
Launch the media gallery 1 playerBy: Kennedy Settje, a senior at Leigh High School
The start of the conference tournament for the Clarkson-Leigh Patriot boys was played on Tuesday, February 1st. The #2 ranked Patriots played the #7 ranked Cadets in Clarkson at 7:30pm.
This was the second round of East Husker, as the boys’ had earned a bye for the first round because they were a top seed.
The game started out well for the Patriots. They came out hungry for a win and had all the momentum in the first quarter. After knocking down shots and attacking the rim, the Patriots were up to a first quarter lead, 13-8.
During the 2nd quarter, however, the momentum flipped. The Cadets did what the Patriots did in the first quarter. Their defense brought more energy, holding the Patriots to only 11 points in the second quarter.
The game at halftime was tied, 24-24.
After a quick halftime talk for the teams, they were both eager to come out victorious. Clarkson-Leigh, however, came out of halftime a step slower than their opponent. West-Point Beemer continued their momentum from the second quarter and ran with it. After the third quarter the score was 29-35.
The Patriots needed to bring something in the 4th quarter to come out with a win.
Jarred Novotny kept the team in the game with a very good shooting night, knocking down 8 threes.
Despite his big performance, the 6-point deficit coming into the 4th quarter was a little too much for the Patriots to handle. They battled back to make it a 3-point game, but couldn’t completely close the gap.
The final score was 47-50 favoring the Cadets.
Junior Mason Whitmore said, “We fought hard and wanted to win badly, it just didn't go our way that night. It wasn't because of lack of effort, it was just us not finishing strong enough to beat them. If we played them again, I’d be confident that we would come out with the victory.”
This brought the Patriots to the losers’ bracket of the tournament where they matched up against the #4-seed North Bend Central Tigers on Friday, February 4 in Leigh in a bid to keep their tournament hopes alive.
But after earning a 25-24 halftime lead over the Tigers, a scoreless third quarter sealed the Patriots’ disappointing fate.
Despite another impressive performance from Novotny, who put up 24 of the team’s points, the Patriots scored just 11 total points in the second half to bring the final score to 36-56.
Head coach, Jeff Bachman said, “This was a disappointing loss. I was proud of our effort, but we just came up short.”
This tournament outcome was not what the Patriots were hoping for, but we wish them the best of luck in the rest of their season!
Stats vs. West Point-Beemer
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Final
West Point-Beemer 8 16 11 15 50
Clarkson/Leigh 13 11 5 18 47
Individual Stats: (points, rebounds, assists, steals)
Jarred Novotny: 27, 3, 0, 1; Mason Whitmore: 7, 9, 3, 1; Eli Hays: 6, 3, 4, 4; Drew Beeson: 0, 3, 2, 0; Carter Hanel: 3, 7, 3, 1; Mitch Beeson: 4, 4, 0, 1
Stats vs. North Bend Central
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Final
NBC 11 13 15 17 56
Clarkson/Leigh 12 13 0 11 36
Individual Stats: (points, rebounds, assists, steals)
Jarred Novotny: 24, 4, 1, 1; Mason Whitmore: 2, 4, 0, 2; Drew Beeson: 2, 3, 0, 1; Carter Hanel: 4, 6, 3, 1; Logan Schroeder: 0, 2, 2, 2; Mitch Beeson: 2, 5, 0, 1; Kanyon Held: 0, 2, 0, 0