Spooner’s Cade Wiberg made a putback of a missed free throw with no time left on the clock to give the Rails a 54-52 win over the Hayward Hurricanes in a hard-fought boys basketball game at Hayward Middle School Saturday Feb. 10.
The Rails led at halftime 28-21. Lucas Hansen pumped in 18 points to lead the Hurricane scoring.
“This was a very fun game to be a part of,” said Coach Pat Harrison. “Obviously we would have liked the outcome to be different, but you couldn’t ask for more in a game: a rivalry game, a great crowd, good basketball, and a close finish!
“ I thought we played very hard,” Harrison added. “I would have liked to execute better down the stretch. I said in the time-out that I wanted us to hold for the last shot. We didn’t. Sure we scored, but then gave up an easy bucket at the other end. The turnover hurt, obviously, but then we had a chance to send it to overtime by just securing a rebound. That didn’t happen and their player made a great play.
“It’s funny because we talk about boxing out on free throws on a daily basis,” the coach added. That is not the sole reason we lost. However, little things like that make a difference in a close game like that and unfortunately we didn’t do enough little things to win the game. Hopefully it’s a learning experience for the underclassmen.”
On Thursday Feb. 8, the Chetek-Weyerhaeuser Bulldogs pulled out a 70-51 win over the Canes at the RJS Gym. The visitors led at halftime, 38-23. Hansen had 10 points and Tyler Eaton had nine for the Canes.
This was Senior Night, “an emotional night for me,” said Coach Harrison. Seeing my son out there and this group of seniors that have been together for awhile now, got to me. Knowing it was mine and their final game at RJS Gymnasium was very bittersweet. I love that gym. Being able to grow up and play there while I was in school, then get to come back as a coach, coach some great players and young men, then get to coach my son and watch him play is something I will never forget.
“This group of seniors will always be special to me. Regardless of our record, they never quit and continued to play hard and lead by example.
“Credit Chetek; they came out and shot the lights out to start the game. We couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn, which didn’t help matters. It came down to us not being able to get stops consistently, and then when we did, we didn’t hunt for great shots and instead settled for OK shots!”
Spooner 28 26 — 54
Hayward 31 21 — 52
Hayward: FG-FT/A-PF-TP: Lucas Hansen, 9-0-2-18; Nate Harrison, 3-1/2-3-9; Miles McCallum, 3-1/1-2-7; Tyler Eaton, 0-4/4-4-4; Luke Snider, 2-0-0-4; Dawson Jorczak, 1-2/2-3-4; Kyle Gajewski, 1-0-1-2; Micah Bacon, 0-2/2-1-2;Grason Crust, 1-0-2-2; totals, 20-10/11-18-52. 3-pt. FG: Harrison 2.
Spooner: Cade Wiberg, 5-2/2-3-12; Evan Potaczak, 4-3/6-2-11; Maverick Swanson, 5-1/2-2-11; Jake Hartwig, 2-0-1-5; Jason Fizel, 3-1/2-4-9; Zach Blessing, 1-0-0-2; Graycen Daniels, 1-2/2-3-4; totals, 21-9/14-15-54. 3-pt. FG: Fizel 2, Hartwig.
Hayward 23 28 — 51
Chetek-Wey. 38 32 — 70
Hayward: Lucas Hansen, 4-2/3-1-10; Tyler Eaton, 3-3/7-3-9; Preston Sullivan, 2-0-0-4; Ben Laird, 2-0-2-5; Grason Crust, 1-1/2-1-4; Kyle Gajewski, 1-0/2-1-2; Ryker Chipman, 0-1/4-0-1; Luke Snider, 1-0-0-2; Miles McCallum, 1-0-0-2; Wyatt Lobitz, 1-0-1-2; totals, 19-11/26-14-51. 3-pt. FG: Laird, Crust.
Chetek-Weyerhaeuser: Brady Lentz, 5-3/6-3-15; Bryce Killoren, 5-1/5-1-14; Benson Paulson, 3-2/3-4-13; Broderick Olson, 5-0-2-14; Aden Mack, 4-0-3-7; Conner Hanson, 2-0/1-3-4; Brennan Lentz, 1-0-1-3; Luke Anderson, 0-1=0-1-0; totals, 25-7/15-18-70. 3-pt. FG: Olson 4, Paulson 3, Killoren 2, Brady Lentz 2, BrennanLentz.
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