First Practice
We had our first practice the 18th of October. Our team was very sloppy and raw, but hey, its just our first practice, right?
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1st Game of Season: Oconomowoc vs. Waukesha NorthOur first game was awesome. We won 30-18 against Waukesha North. They were not a very good team, but they were very big and only one or two of there guys were smaller than 5'4", but we played physical and got a lot of steals for easy buckets. Plus, Garrett and Vince Stocke forgot about our game, which made us even smaller, though they came for the second half. Gavin Liesener and Ryan Prom both had early steals that they took for layups to help jump out to a 6-0 lead early in the first quarter. From there, we never looked back. With the help of Sam Loppnow's rebounds and steals, and with Dylan Rector's 6 points we kept our lead to halftime. In the second half, we got the ball to Nate Zastrow, who finished with 8 points. At the end of the 3rd Quarter, Garrett Stocke hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer. Alex Lavine's late baskets and Adam Shea, Luke Bakkum, and Brady Nold's defense ensured our victory late in the game. |
Arrowhead Tournament (1st Tournament)
1st Game: Oconomowoc vs. Brookfield Central
The first game of the tournamount was on Friday, the 24th of November. We played against Brookfield Central without Mike Schulz. Last year when we played this team, we got beat by about 20 or 30, so we knew it was going to be tough to win. We came prepared. We got off to a poor start though, throwing the ball away plenty of times early in the game against their press, and got down big early. However, we bounced back to trail 12-17 after the 1st half of play. Then we really got started, and Nate Zastrow, who finished with 11 points, started to get going. Sam Loppnow added eight, including 2-2 from the line. In the second half, after a Nate Zastrow basket, Luke Bakkum hit a 3-pointer to tie the game at 17. Then we took our first lead of the game with 9:39 left in the second half, 19-17. Alex Lavine, Garrett Stocke, and Gavin Liesener all added a free throw to help out the team, and with the help of great team defense at the end of the game, we held Brookfield Central to 5 points in the second half. We won the game 25-22, a great victory that put us on the right track for the rest of the tournament.
2nd Game: Oconomowoc vs. East Troy
We played our second game that Friday night as well, against East Troy. Missing Sam Loppnow and Mike Schulz, we knew it was going to be tough, but we came out and jumped to an early lead. Luke Bakkum hit two three pointers in the first half, and Ryan Prom had two outside jumpers as well as a free throw. Nate Zastrow added 7 points in the first half to help lead the way. At the end of the first half, we were up by 14, 29-15. Nate Zastrow had 13 points to lead all scores, and Ryan Prom finished with 9. Both Gavin Liesener and Luke Bakkum had 6 points and Garrett Stocke hit two clutch free throws late. With 4:39 left to play, we had a comfortable lead at 38-29, but that lead quickly diminished as it was cut to 2 with 59 seconds left. With 10 seconds left, the score was 43-39 Oconomowoc, which was the final score of the game.
3rd Game: Oconomowoc vs. New Berlin
Our third game was very important for many reasons. First of all, nobody wants to lose, and they especially do not want to lose if they get to play another game if they win, and that is exactly what we were playing for. Our third and final game against a team in our pool came against the New Berlin Vikings. The game was close throughout, especially in the first half, when the scores went back and forth. At halftime, we were down 16-17. Thats when we really picked up the intensity. Gavin Liesener had a three pointer and led all scores with seven points and Ryan Prom went 4 for 4 from the free throw line, and finished with four points. With 2 minutes left in the game, we had a 31-26 lead. However, New Berlin came back and took the lead 32-31 with 40.5 seconds left. They took the lead once again 33-32 with 10 seconds left in the game. Then, with 7.1 seconds left in the game, Alex Lavine inbounded the ball on the other side of the court, got the ball back right away and dribbled all the way down the court. As he approached the hoop, he took a double-hitch lay-up and put it in at the BUZZER! We won 34-33! "I was originally going down hoping the guy would come on me so I could pass it to Nate," said Lavine, "but when the guy just stood there, I said 'okay' and took it all the way." The team stormed out onto the court and Alex was caught in a bear hug. That was truly a remarkable game.
4th Game: Oconomowoc vs. Hartland Arrowhead
In our 4th game, we had to play Arrowhead, our enemy. The last 2-3 games, we have lost by 20 or more against them. We came in very intense, but not very confident. Arrowhead had about 3 people over 6 ft. and one of their point guards was as tall as our forwards, Vince and Garrett Stocke. In the first half we stayed with them quite well, leading for much of it. Vince and Garrett Stocke played great in the first half against the tall people, and combined for 6 points. At the end of the half, we were only down 14-16. In the second half, Gavin Liesener and Luke Bakkum hit 3 pointers and both had 5 points. However, Arrowhead's size and athletism was too much for us as they just kept on scoring at will. They scored 33 in the second half on our way to a 28-49 loss.
Unfortunately, we did not make it to the championship game, but we can say that we lost only to the best team in the tournament because Arrowhead ended up winning it all. Overall, it was a very successful tournament that really raised our expectations and confidence.
