Central boys squander leads against MFL MarMac, Kee

By Willis Patenaude | Times-Register

In the opening quarter of Central’s Jan. 28 boys basketball game against MFL MarMac, the Warriors kept pace with the second place team in the conference. Owen Hammersland hit an off-balance jump shot for two of his game-high 23 points and layups by Vaughn Zittergruen and Isaac Loan, who combined for 12 points, kept the score tied 6-6 midway through the first period. 

The Warriors continued to hang around into the second quarter, with Zittergruen hitting a free throw and working hard in the paint to break through the Bulldog defense and height advantage.

Though MFL MarMac continued to score, Central matched them basket for basket early on, with Mason Loan grabbing a rebound and putting it back for two points and O. Hammersland making the three-point shot look easy. But down 20-17 with little under six minutes to go in the half, the Warriors started coming up empty offensively.

A timeout by coach Brady Stramer with under four minutes to go, with the Warriors trailing 28-17, settled the team, who scored on a Carson Ruegnitz put back, followed by a Hammersland three, pulling the Warriors within 10 points,  at 32-22. Central closed the quarter out with a baseline layup from Jake Hertrampf on a pass from Isaac Loan, who finished with four assists and a massive three-pointer to pull the Warriors within nine at halftime. 

“The second quarter both teams were able to find more of a rhythm offensively, as the pace of play picked up. We had our best offensive period,” Stramer said.

With a bit of momentum coming out of the locker room, the Warriors scored quickly on a Hammersland layup. He also buried a three-pointer on a pass from Zittergruen, on one of his two assists. With the score 36-32, the comeback looked like it was just a matter of time, but the Bulldogs had other plans.

Central turned the ball over and its shooters missed shots, while the Bulldogs collected blocks, finishing with 10 in the game, and out-scored the Warriors 23-0 over the remainder of the quarter. The Warriors trailed 59-32 heading into the final period. 

“We were able to come out the first minute of the second half on a 5-0 run, however, from that point on, we were unable to find open looks, and struggled to get back on defense, which allowed MFL MarMac to get easy opportunities in transition, which was a big part of their prolonged run,” Stramer said.

The Warriors trailed by as much as 31 in the fourth quarter, but they kept shooting. Baskets by Julien Singleton, Mason Loan, Hertrampf and Hammersland closed the gap slightly, as the Warriors fell 71-47 to the Bulldogs. 

Central shot 36.4 percent from the field and 31.2 percent on three-point attempts, but committed 23 turnovers. Hertrampf and Ruegnitz led with six rebounds and Hammersland finished with four of Central’s eight steals. 

“We had one quarter that really put the game out of reach for us. In that quarter we turned the ball over too often, and did not rotate well enough on the defensive end. We will need to be more consistent for four quarters moving forward,” Stramer said. 

In the home gym on Jan. 31, the Warriors played the Kee Hawks. The first quarter was an offensive explosion for Central, who jumped out to an 8-0 lead after a layup by Zittergruen with an assist from Hertrampf started the scoring. Zittergruen finished with eight points. 

Hammersland added an off-balance three from the corner for three of his team-leading 16 points and M. Loan drained a three to score several of his 11 points. The defense, which finished with six steals and five blocks, led by Hammersland with four steals and Hertrampf with two blocks, forced the Hawks into bad shots. 

Kee pulled within three, at 8-5, with four and a half minutes to go in the first period, but the Warriors were equal to the task. A demonstration of the “art of the pass,” on a fast break from Hammersland, to I. Loan, to M. Loan to Zittergruen resulted in two points. The Warriors added to the lead with a Hertrampf three-pointer and, thanks to an M. Loan coast-to-coast layup off a rebound, Central closed the quarter leading 23-13. 

“We did a great job of implementing our defensive game plan, while finding good shots in transition to help us score 23 points in the opening quarter,” Stramer said.

Central’s offense dropped off a bit in the second quarter, as turnovers and second chance points let the Hawks chip away at the lead. Central also hit a scoring drought, with Griffen Hammersland’s three pointer their only score in the first five minutes of the period, but the Warriors still led 26-21. 

Kee pulled to within two points, but Central put up seven points in the final minute on a Ruegnitz jump shot and O. Hammersland layup and one-handed lob at the buzzer for three, giving the Warriors some breathing room at halftime, up 36-28.

Shots continued to rim out for the Warriors in the third quarter, but they maintained an early lead despite not scoring for nearly four minutes. Zittergruen broke the drought on a drive to the basket to put Central ahead 38-31. With three minutes to go in the period, G. Hammersland hit a three-pointer, but Kee’s aggressive offense in the paint and defensive pressure allowed them to outscore the Warriors 10-3 in the final three minutes of the period. Central clung to a 46-44 lead as the fourth quarter started. 

“Early in the second half, I felt that we began to get more stagnant in our half court offense, which led to some struggles offensively, not scoring a point for the first three minutes,” Stramer said. 

The Warriors fought off the Hawks early, but Kee took the lead at the 5:25 mark and never gave it up, holding Central to 10 points in the quarter, while scoring 18. Central stayed close on the strength of free throw shooting, where they hit 80 percent in the game, and found themselves down by just four in the final 90 seconds. However, a series of missed opportunities allowed Kee to extend the lead and win 62-56. 

“I thought, for the entirety of the game, our guys battled and played a physical game against a team that was much bigger than us. We need to do a better job of maintaining our body and ball movement as the game progresses. I thought we moved really well without the ball early in the game, and got more and more stagnant as the second half continued,” Stramer said. 

The Warriors (7-12) have just three games left in the regular season, with two this week, including a Feb. 3 road game against Waukon (8-7). South Winn comes to Elkader for senior night Feb. 7.