By Dan Truttschel~Sports Correspondent
There weren’t too many style points being earned by either the Westosha Central or Badger boys basketball teams in a Southern Lakes Conference contest last week.
But from the Falcons perspective, all that mattered was one thing – the final score.
Central held the Badgers without a point in two of the four quarters and scored enough of its own to record a 33-25 victory. The Falcons fell to rival Wilmot Friday night to earn a split for the week, which left them with a 3-6 overall record and a 1-4 mark in the SLC.
While both offenses struggled, it was the Falcons’ defense that led them past the Badgers, Central coach Dave Sjong said.
“I was pleased with our effort defensively,” he said. “The guys buckled down and got stops when we needed to. We rebounded well after the first five minutes of the game.”
Central led 5-0 after the first eight minutes and 13-9 at halftime. The Falcons shut out the Badgers again in the third quarter to build a 22-9 advantage heading into the fourth.
Badger tried to rally in the last eight minutes with a 16-11 advantage, but it wasn’t enough to close the early gap.
Sjong said he was pleased with his team’s ability to play the game at its pace and not the Badgers.
“We were able to control the tempo of the game and were good against their press,” he said.
Even with the win, however, Sjong knows the game wasn’t pretty by anybody’s standards – and that certainly showed on the scoreboard.
“Offensively, we turned the ball over 28 times, and Badger was cold from the field,” he said. “We scored 33 points, had 28 turnovers and won. That’s hard to believe, but we needed a win.
“It was ugly basketball, but it seems to be the type of basketball we are playing this year.”
Central’s offensive efforts also were hurt by a poor showing at the free-throw line, where the Falcons made just five of 19 attempts.
“(That) was a killer on the scoreboard,” Sjong said.
Ben Graveley led the Falcons with nine points, followed by Mike Hall and David Finnemore each with five.