NEW GLARUS — The Glarner Knights faced off against rival Belleville Feb. 2, and stayed in control throughout much of the game, winning 65-57.
“It was a grind, that’s for sure,” New Glarus coach Travis Sysko said afterwards. “Give Belleville credit — they are playing good basketball right now. They were averaging about 75 a game coming in for their last five games, and we hold them to 57 — we’ll take that.”
The Knights (13-7, 6-2 Capitol South) never trailed, and allowed the Wildcats (5-10, 3-4) to tie the score just once after 0-0. However, a 10-point first half way was whittled down to zero three minutes into the second half, and the Knights were called 15 fouls in the game, including 9 in the first half. That allowed Belleville to attempt 16 free throws (hitting 10), while New Glarus missed all three shots it took in the game.
“They’ve played each other probably 50 times over the years,” Sysko said. “They know each other pretty well, and some of them are teammates in other sports, obviously. If this was a regular season, we would have a full gym for this game tonight.”
New Glarus slowly but surely built up to an 18-8 lead in the opening half thanks to eight points in the paint by Dain Walter. The Knights struggled in shooting from beyond the arc in the first half, but working the ball down to the blocks consistently worked for the home team.
“Our bread and butter all year has been getting to the basket and finishing in the pain,” Sysko said. “Some of those missed 3s were our best offense, because we got the offensive rebound and the putback. We’ve got some kids capable of knocking them down, we’re just streaky like that.”
A 9-point lead dwindled to just six in the final two minutes of the half, but New Glarus still held a 33-30 advantage at the intermission. That lead was dropped to just one point to open the second half, and two minutes later Belleville’s Carson Syse hit a 3-pointer to tie it at 37.
“That’s kind of been out M.O. — get up 8, 9, 10 and then let them creep back in again,” Sysko said.
A drive by Nathan Streiff put the Knights back on top, and then Carter Siegenthaler broke through with a pair of 3-pointers that helped bump the lead back up to six. The Wildcats wouldn’t get within one possession of the Knights the rest of the evening.
“Carter hit a couple there in the second half to get us going a little bit and kind of extend that lead,” Sysko said. “I’m happy with how we performed down the stretch. We had some turnover issues there to start the half and threw it away a few times, but I thought we did a pretty decent job of taking care of the ball down the stretch.
Walter finished with a game-high 20 points for New Glarus, while Streiff and Mason Martinson each had 10. Siegenthaler and Breckin Faber scored 8 points each for the Knights, with AC Strok adding 6 and Darris Schuett hitting a first half 3-pointer.
Andrew Ace led Belleville in scoring with 15 points, and Trevor Syse finished with 14. Carson Syse and DeMarcus Conner each had 9 points.
“Dane had a nice game again tonight. Mason was able to get to the bucket. Nathan got downhill a few times for us,” Sysko said.
New Glarus has just two regular season games remaining — at Waterloo Feb. 5 and a home game against Wisconsin Heights Feb. 11. Belleville is slated to travel to Cambridge Feb. 5, then face Heights in Wisconsin Dells Feb. 9 before a game at Marshall Feb. 11. If the Wildcats were to beat Marshall, New Glarus could have the opportunity to sneak into a first-place tie for the league title.
