Cyclones take care of business against Blair
HCHS girls
Tuesday night, the HCHS Cyclones got back in the win column with a dominant 57-33 victory over the Blair Bears to earn their 9th win of the season.
“It’s one of those deals where those losses were hanging over our heads a little bit,” said Cyclone Head Coach Zach Klaassen. “Players and coaches just wanted to get on the right side of the win column. I thought we came out real aggressive and just ready to go and focused.”
The Cyclones came out of the gate with 19 points in the first quarter leading by six, followed by a strong second quarter, holding the Bears to just four points, taking an 18-point lead into halftime.
“The offense was going as we hit the 3 early,” Klaassen said. “We started working the ball inside and getting easy buckets in there.”
The Cyclones continued to roll offensively with a strong third quarter outscoring Blair 20-2. They had a quiet fourth quarter only scoring two points, but easily cruised to victory.
The Cyclones will take on the 5-9 Atlantic Trojans Thursday night at 6 p.m. on the road. The Trojans are led by Paytn Harder averaging 15.5 points and 11.5 rebounds, along with Zoey Kirchhoff averaging 2.4 assists.
“We’ve got to keep these turnovers down,” Klaassen said. “The other thing is we need to keep them off the boards. They have some kids that get after the boards, and those are backbreakers when you played rugged defense.”
HCHS Boys
The Cyclones continue to stay hot earning their 5th consecutive victory Tuesday night on the road over the Blair Bears, 63-51.
“I think the biggest thing is we’re getting healthy,” said Cyclone Head Coach Mitch Osborn. “We’re getting people back. Cade Sears coming back is a huge boost, and one of the biggest ones was getting Franz Reisz back. He’s a difference maker for us.”
Reisz led the Cyclones in scoring with 21 points on the night, helping lead the Cyclones by 10 at the end of the first quarter, and helping lead the Cyclones into the locker room at halftime with a 32-27 lead.
“He’s a worker,” Osborn said of Reisz. “You’ve never going to find a harder worker than Franz. Third quarter was going to be the difference as we wanted to try and stretch the lead and we did.”
The Cyclones came out of the gate outscoring the Bears by eight in the third quarter, and kept pace with them during the fourth quarter, cruising to victory.
The Cyclones will be on the road Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. against the 3-9 Atlantic Trojans. The Trojans are led by Colton Rasmussen averaging 27.4 points, Brock Henderson averaging 7.1 rebounds, and Nolan Waters averaging 3.8 assists.
“They’ve been in a lot of close games,” Osborn said. “We’ve got to be ready to go. They have the best player in the conference in Colton Rasmussen. You can’t stop him, and we know it’s going to be dogfight especially at Atlantic on the road.”
