Another road stumble for Cougar boys

GRUNDY CENTER – The AGWSR boys basketball team can’t afford to look back now.

The Cougars lost to Grundy Center, 59-47, at Grundy Center High School on Thursday, Feb. 6.

AGWSR will finish the regular season with an 0-11 record away from the home gym in Ackley.

After home games against Colo-NESCO and Meskwaki Settlement this week to end the regular season, the postseason begins on Thursday, Feb. 20 at West Fork High School as AGWSR takes on BCLUW.

“If the guys want to keep playing together, we’ve got to be playing our best basketball to be ready for districts,” AGWSR head coach Ryley Schipper said. “We’ve got to put tonight’s game and, really, all the games that we’ve played in the past.”

Luke Starr led the Cougars with 11 points, Titan Opperman scored nine points and Tanner Weichers had seven points.

Opperman and Weichers had five points each in a 12-0 run in the third quarter that got the Cougars within three at 42-39. The Spartans stretched the lead back to 45-39 at the end of three quarters and added another 3-pointer at the start of the fourth quarter to get back up by nine points.

Starr’s only 3-pointer of the night got the Cougars within six, 50-44, in the fourth quarter. A 9-0 run for Grundy, including two Brayden Sawyer second-chance buckets on missed Spartan free throws, put the game out of AGWSR’s reach.

“It’s hard for us as a team to really come back from always being down,” Schipper said. “I was happy with the effort to fight back but we just didn’t have enough in the tank to get all the way back.”

The Spartans dropped in 11 3-pointers on 22 attempts and outrebounded AGWSR 33-10. Sawyer and Cale Hendricks had three 3-pointers each, with Sawyer and Nick Ascher scoring 13 points each to lead Grundy Center.

“Grundy did a good job finding an open guy tonight and we didn’t do a very good job of recognizing where those shooters were at,” Schipper said.

AGWSR won the first meeting between the teams this season, a 73-72 overtime thriller in Ackley.

“We’ve been in a lot of close games,” Schipper said. “We have to realize that when we play together we’re going to be good. Hopefully tonight they realize that we let this one get away. Grundy’s a good team, but I feel like we could have been better.”

AGWSR      11              16              12              8                —               47

Grundy       19              18              8                14              —               59

AGWSR– Daniel Stahl 2-3 2-3 6; Jaden Penning 3-4 0-2 7; Ben Macy 0-0 0-0 0; Chase Harms 1-1 2-2 4; Keaton Penning 1-1 0-0 3; Luke Starr 4-11 2-2 11; Darren Veld 0-0 0-0 0; Tanner Weichers 3-8 1-1 7; Riley Sicard 0-1 0-0 0; Titan Opperman 2-5 4-4 9. Totals 16-34 11-14 47. 

Grundy Center– Cole Lehr 0-2 0-0 0; Dayne Zinkula 1-4 0-0 3; Cale Hendricks 3-6 0-0 9; Dexter Whitehill 2-2 0-0 6; Zach Opheim 0-2 2-2 2; Nick Voss 0-0 0-0 0; Jensen Clapp 2-6 0-0 5; Brayden Sawyer 5-8 0-0 13; Nick Ascher 6-14 0-0 13; Wes Willis 3-9 2-4 8; Joe Janssen 0-1 0-0 0; Austin Engelkes 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 22-57 4-6 59. 

Three-point goals– AGWSR 4 (Opperman, Starr, K. Penning, J. Penning); GC 11 (Sawyer 3, Hendricks 3, Whitehill 2, Ascher, Clapp, Zinkula). Rebounds– AGWSR 10 (Opperman 3); GC 33 (Willis 7, Ascher 6). Assists– AGWSR 5 (two with 2); GC 17 (Clapp 6). Steals– AGWSR 8 (two with 2); GC 10 (two with 2). Blocks– AGWSR 4 (Weichers 3); GC 1 (Whitehill). Total fouls– AGWSR 15, GC 15. Fouled out– None.