Spartans struggle on the road against the Tigers
The struggles continue for the Exira-EHK Spartans boys basketball team as they’ve dropped their fifth consecutive game, most recently losing 78-44 Tuesday night to the Woodbine Tigers.
“What I keep telling them is that we’ve got to play with energy, with passion, and working our tails off, and making sure we’re doing the right things,” said Spartan Head Coach Tony Santisteban. “I like what I’ve seen the last week and a half, where the scoreboard isn’t always what we want it to be. Woodbine is a great team.”
The Tiger offense came out of the gate aggressively opening the quarter with a 7-0 run before Senior Spartan Josh Nelson made a 3-pointer to get his team on the board, which would be followed shortly after by another 3-point shot, to keep his team within striking distance.
The Tigers continued to put offensive runs together going on another 6-0 run, but just before the quarter Nelson made his third 3-pointer of the game to have nine of the 11 Spartans points trailing 24-11.
“If he [Nelson] hits his first shot, he normally is feeling pretty good for the rest of the game,” Santisteban said. “He’s in aggressive mode and he’s ready to go. He’s got a good shot. If they leave him any space, he can knock it down.”
Nelson continued his dominance from 3-point territory with another shot to open the second quarter, but the Tiger offense continued to get shots from Brody Pryor, Carter Gruver, and Landon Blum. Nelson responded with a mid-range jumper giving himself 14 points on the night.
Santisteban called a timeout shortly after Nelson’s shot. When play resumed, Nelson made another 3-pointer, his fifth of the game. Junior Spartan Owen Juhl got in on the action sinking a 3-pointer, followed by a mid-range basket from Nelson, but the Tiger offense continued to make shots, taking a 48-31 lead into halftime.
“We needed to take care of the ball, and we ended up not doing that,” Santisteban said. “When that’s the case, they spread the lead, because they get layups or we have too many turnovers and that swings the game more wide open than what it was.”
The third quarter was dominated by the Tiger offense, outscoring the Spartans 20-2 with the only shot of the quarter coming from Nelson after the Tigers opened the quarter with a 15-0 run.
However, in the fourth quarter, the Spartan offense turned the tables on the Tigers for a moment with the first four buckets coming from Junior Austin Rasmussen, Nelson, and Juhl, but it wasn’t enough as the Spartans lost their eighth game of the season.
The Spartans returned home Thursday night for a showdown with the 8-3 Ar-We-Va Rockets. The Rockets are led by Senior Blayne Smith averaging 15.3 points, 9.9 rebounds, and 2.8 assists per game.
“Coach [Matt] Wilken is going to have Ar-We-Va ready,” Santisteban said. “They play hard for him. They have been going on a little bit of a winning streak themselves. We’ve just got to play some good sound fundamental basketball. If we can do that, then we’ll be able to make it a game hopefully and just go from there.”
