Wolves drop close battle at home to Panthers

Senior Panther Macanna Guritz scored 12 points for Logan-Magnolia on the path to a 44-40 victory over the IKM-Manning Wolves Thursday night. For the Wolves, it was their second consecutive loss and seventh overall, moving their record to 4-7 on the season.

The first quarter got off to a strong start for both teams with the Wolves trailing by just four points. Junior Abby Neilheisel was leading the Wolves in scoring with six points.

Senior Mabel Langel dropped the first bucket for the Wolves to start the second quarter, putting them down by just two points. With just over a minute played in the quarter, Panthers head coach Shad Hornbeck called a timeout with his team up by four points.

Freshman Anna Stangl was fouled with two and a half minutes remaining in the quarter, sending her to the line for free throw attempts. She made both of them, putting the Wolves down by two. The Wolves scored one more bucket before half, sending them into the locker room tied at 18. Neilheisel was the Wolves leading scorer with eight points.

“We had to continue to keep playing hard both on offense and defense,” said Wolves Head Coach Gene Rasmussen.

Langel got the Wolves off to a good start in the third quarter scoring the first basket and giving them their first lead of the night. With just over four and a half minutes to go in the quarter, Langel was fouled on a shot attempt that sent her to the line. She made 1 of 2 free throw attempts, giving the Wolves a 6-point lead.

“Mabel is a strong presence inside both offensively and defensively,” Rasmussen said.

Soon after, Senior Panther Ava Goldsmith was fouled, sending her to the line where she dropped both of her free throws, cutting the Wolves lead to four points. Sophomore Taylor Beckendorf was fouled on the next play, where she hit both her free throws, putting the Wolves back up by six points.

The Panthers then went on a 6-0 run to tie the game at 28 points apiece heading into the final quarter.

Neilheisel continued to shoot the ball well getting the Wolves the lead back by two points to open the fourth quarter.

“She played with a lot of confidence,” Rasmussen said. “she was able to have some nice moves against their defense.”

With the Wolves barely hanging onto a 2-point lead, Rasmussen called his first timeout on the night with just under six minutes remaining. Guritz was fouled and made 1 of 2 free throw attempts to put the Wolves down by one point. Soon after, Goldsmith threw up a 3-point shot to tie the game at 32.

Langel was able to get the Wolves the lead back by scoring an easy layup right after. Junior Panther Marki Bertelsen got the ball with the clock continuing to wind down, threw up a 3-pointer to put the Panthers back up by one point. Bertelsen threw up another 3-pointer to expand the Panthers lead.

This forced Rasmussen to call another timeout with less than three minutes remaining in the game. Langel dropped another bucket for the Wolves, but in the end the Panthers got their ninth victory of the season.

I was really proud of the intensity level and fight the girls showed against a very good team,” Rasmussen said. “They kept playing hard for four quarters.”

The Wolves can’t rest for long with their next game Friday night on the road against the 5-7 Riverside Bulldogs, who won their most recent game over the Essex Trojans, 44-38. The Bulldogs are led by Sophomore Sophia Taylor with 99 points and 19 assists.

“We will definitely have to be ready to play,” Rasmussen added.