Hoops teams suffer tough losses

LAWTON WEBER fires up a shot in a recent North game. – Photo by Paige Buboltz

North not only lost its last game of 2021 by just two points, the Golden Raiders suffered a one-point loss in their first game of 2022.

“Date wise, you get lost with how busy we are as far as ending and starting a year that way,” coach Eric Worth said. “Regardless, losing two in a row by a total of three points is always tough.”

After a 5-1 start, Oshkosh North made a shot at the buzzer to defeat North, 79-77, in the championship game of the Raider Shootout on Dec. 30.

On Jan. 4, the Golden Raiders traveled to Green Bay Preble and lost, 76-75, in overtime, thanks to a free throw with 4 seconds to go.

“But we’re trending in the right direction,” said Worth, whose team hosted Pulaski on Friday. “I knew early on we were going to have a little bit of growing pains to try to mesh together and figure each other out. I’m happy where we’re currently at and we’ll be where we need to be toward the end of the year. It’s a really fun group to coach and I’m excited to keep rocking ‘n rolling with them.”

HARD FOR EAGLES, TOO

Christian had to wait quite until this past Friday to play another game after losing in overtime to Lutheran, 65-64, on Dec. 20.

“I really disliked it,” coach Brett Flipse said. “We were playing fairly well. I mean, we lost our first game of the year and then our first one going into the Christmas Break. Between that, we had four straight wins. It was our game to win.”

But the Crusaders’ Casey Verhagen made a nice pass to Andrew Verhelst, who made the winning shot with 7 seconds left.

“They just know how to win,” Flipse said. “I would’ve liked to get right back on the court, but that’s not how it worked.”

When Christian returned, its next opponent just happened to be the No. 1-ranked team in the Division 5 state poll: Reedsville.

“We had a lot of practice and a lot of time to add new things,” Flipse said.

THEN LUTHERAN’S TURN

The Crusaders were 8-0 when they lost to Lake Country Lutheran, 85-70, in the WBY Shootout at Concordia University last Tuesday.

The undefeated Lightning, ranked No. 1 in the Division 3 state poll last week, features senior Luke Haertle. The UW preferred walk-on scored 26 points. Lutheran, which was ranked third in Division 4, had 17 turnovers compared to just six for Lutheran.