NEW GLARUS — Beating a good team is hard. Beating a good team that hits 13 of 26 (50%) of their 3-point attempts can be downright impossible in high school sports.
Such was the case Feb. 8, as New Glarus lost to Oregon, 76-66.
“They made their shots when they had their opportunity,” Glarner Knights coach Travis Sysko said. “That’s been a theme this year: Teams shoot really well against us. Obviously, we have to do a better job of closing out and getting high hands in their face.”
The Panthers hit shots from long range like a game of NBA Jam, except the “He’s on fire!” token fed glitched to match every player in black. In the first half, four different Oregon players hit six 3s — and junior Deaken Bush hit three of them. Bush would finish the game hitting a career-high 5 of 7 3-point attempts and finishing with 18 points.
Despite the barrage of baskets from the Badger South school, New Glarus went into halftime trailing by just five at 36-31. Darris Schuett and Carter Siegenthaler each hit a 3 in the first half for the Knights, and teammate Nathan Streiff hit two shots from downtown. None of the Knights scored more than 6 points individually in the first half, but the balanced attack kept the home team within striking distance.
New Glarus brought the deficit to within two in the second half, but Oregon quickly typed in a cheat code and hit seven 3s in a 6-minute stretch to stretch a 38-36 advantage into a 59-46 lead. Not that the Knights struggled on offense, however.
“We had our opportunities and made a run there in the second half. We were just trading 2-point buckets for 3-point buckets, and that’s not going to help you in the long run — it doesn’t add up in our favor,” Sysko said.
When the outside shot wasn’t falling for New Glarus, the Knights worked it inside. New Glarus made just two 3s in the second half, but Dain Walter scored 18 of his 24 points in the paint over the final 18 minutes of the game. Mason Martinson couldn’t get a field goal to fall either, but got himself to the free throw line, where he went 8-for-12. Martinson finished with 14 points.
“We were able to get (Dain) some touches in the post, and they were doubling, but he was fighting through it and finishing it,” Sysko said. “I think we’ve got to do a better job of maybe playing off his post touches, you know, looking for some drives and some kick outs and things like that here and there.”
New Glarus was 14 of 25 from the stripe in the game, and just 11 of 20 in the second half. Oregon was 11 of 16 in the game from the line. Ryne Panzer led the Panthers with 26 points, including a 3 of 5 mark from deep. Isaac Gard, son of Wisconsin coach Greg Gard, hit two 3s and finished with 10 points.
“They are a nice team. They’ve played some really tough schools. They lost by two points to The Prairie School, and lost to Grafton,” Sysko said. “And these guys are the road warriors — they are going on the road every day” because of Dane County COVID-19 restrictions.
The Knights had just one game left on their regular season schedule, a Feb. 11 home game against Wisconsin Heights.
