Defense was key in the Hawks’ 68-39 win over Tri-County to open the second half of the season on Tuesday, Jan. 3.
“We were able to create 16 steals and 23 turnovers, which led to some easy baskets for us,” noted L-S Coach Nick Harthoorn.
The Hawks did have some cold shooting as they only made one of 22 three-point attempts in the conference game. In two-point shots, they went 28 of 46, and in free throws, they were nine of 15.
Despite the boys not shooting great, Harthoorn thought they took good shots. “If we continue to move and share the basketball, good things will happen for us offensively,” he added.
With 16 points and 13 re-bounds, junior Jesse Van Wyk had a double-double night. He also had four assists, four steals, and three blocks.
Other top scorers were junior Tanner Foster and sophomore Rylan James with 12 points apiece and junior Brevin Hansen with 10 points.
Senior Tyler Van Zante had seven assists and four steals, and Hansen also had four steals.
The win improved the Hawks’ record to 8-1 while Tri-County dropped to 1-8.
CMB
By Quentin Thompson
L-S Newspaper I Class
A couple days later, the Hawks played a non-conference game against the 2A CMB Raiders. L-S got off to a 14-4 run and never slowed down. The Hawks won in convincing fashion, 69-35.
“The guys did a good job of playing hard for four quarters,” said Harthoorn. “Our press was good to us tonight. We were able to increase the pace of the game and turn them over 18 times. We did a nice job of taking care of the basketball and executing our stuff.”
Junior Brevin Hansen had an impressive night, scoring 22 points.
“It was nice to get off to a fast start. We knew they would give us a challenge and that we had to bring our best from the start,” Hansen said. “We forced them into a lot of turnovers, and we did a good job of moving the ball on offense.”
Van Wyk and Foster scored 13 and nine, respectively. James ended with eight, and junior Corey McCoy had eight. Van Zante finished with seven. Seniors John Trettin and Ryan Hofer each finished with two.
The Hawks’ good night on offense can be accounted for with their assist stats. The Hawks out-assisted the Raiders 22-8. Leading in assists was Van Wyk with six and Van Zante with five. Sophomore Tyson Vander Linden and Trettin each had three. Hansen had two assists and Foster, Hofer, and James each had one.
Van Wyk led on the boards with nine, followed by James with seven and Van Zante with five.
The Hawks (9-1) had three games on the schedule this week: Tuesday at Sigourney, Thursday at Keota, and Friday at home against English Valleys. The Friday game will be audio live streamed on thecube.com.
