Wins push up Fall Creek, Osseo-Fairchild
Fall Creek has won there games in a row and eight of their last nine.
Since a loss to the Crickets back on Dec. 27, Osseo-Fairchild has won four games in a row.
Win games and you get pushed up by those wins as both Tri-County Area prep boys basketball teams are climbing the Cloverbelt Conference standings.
Fall Creek (10-2) is tied for first with Chippewa Falls McDonell at 6-1 in the Western Cloverbelt Conference with the first round of league play has concluded. FC stayed in first with a 72-50 beatdown of Cadott on Tuesday, Jan. 17. Bo Vollrath became the 11th player in Fall Creek history to score 1,000 points which he did against the Hornets (4-10), who are winless in league play so far, and how with a game-best 32 points to go with 11 rebounds for the double-double. He also had two assists. Other scoring for the Crickets came from Ben Kelly with 13 points, Isaac Steinke with nine, Jack Walden eight points, Leo Hagberg five points, Jacob Wathke and Gus Pranckus two points each and Ethan Frederick with a point. Hagberg led the team in assists with five while Kelly had four assists to go with six rebounds. Hagberg and Steinke also both had team-bests in steals with four each.
Vollrath is fourth in the Western Cloverbelt in scoring at 20.3 ppg. In fact, the top five scorers in the league average at least 20 points or more. He's also third in rebounds per game at 9.5 and leads the league in assists with four a game.
The recent wins over Cadott and last Thursday, Jan. 12 upending No. 1 ranked McDonell (who dropped to No. 2 in Division 5 after the loss to the Crickets) have pushed FC back into the state coaches poll once again at No. 10 in Division 4. Next up for Fall Creek are Thorp (6-9) on Friday of this week and next Monday, Jan. 23 at home vs. Mondovi (3-9).
Osseo-Fairchild (7-5) is tied with Bloomer for third in the WCC at 5-2. The Thunder not only topped Eau Claire Regis (2-11) in overtime on Tuesday, Jan. 17 by a 49-47 score at ECR but also downed Cadott 75-63 last week Thursday, Jan. 12 at Cadott. Despite the Hornets' Warren Bowe and Tegan Ritter scoring 22 and 20 points respectively, O-F had eight players score at least two points. The Thunder's scoring column was topped by Braeden Metzler with 18 points followed by Brody Seefeldt with 16, Jack Steinke 12, Ashton Oliver 11,Brogan Korger eight, Tryggve Korger six and two points each from Drake Swett and Chase Instenes. Against the Ramblers, the Thunder again had multiple players in double figures led by Steinke with 16 points, Oliver 12, Frase 11 and Metzler 10. Also scoring for O-F were Seefeldt with four points and Swett with two. Regis led for 98 percent of the ballgame until O-F caught them right at the end of regulation with Oliver's three-pointer which tied things up and then eventually win in OT. Osseo-Fairchild will look to keep their winning streak going this Friday, Jan. 20 at Stanley-Boyd and next Tuesday, Jan. 24 against non-conference opponent, Spring Valley (5-6), in a good road test at Spring Valley before playing at McDonell (14-1) again on Jan. 26. O-F's next home game is not until Jan. 31 vs. Fall Creek.
Augusta (3-11) picked up its third win of the regular season and in Large Dairyland play 62-54 at Gilmanton (1-9) on Tuesday, Jan. 17. This win snapped a small two-game losing streak occurring last week as the Beavers fell in double overtime at home to Eau Claire Immanuel Lutheran 70-66 on Thursday, Jan. 12 and then lost 88-63 to first place Whitehall (9-3) the very next night in a rescheduled contest. AHS's Brennan King scored 21 points including two key baskets to force the extra sessions but the Lancers (6-1) had too much left at the end as they outscored Augusta 11-7 in the second OT. Augusta's leading scorer in this ballgame was Drew Jacobs with 26 also scoring for the Beavers were Logan Barrett with 10 points while Noah Schroeder, Cashton Leslin and Levi White all had three points. Jacobs and Barnett both had double doubles with a whopping 17 and 10 rebounds respectively while King had eight boards. Leslin finished with a team-best six steals and Schroeder led the team with four assists. The Lancers had seven players score, four in double figures led by Carter Rutz's 21 points. Jacobs was Augusta's leading scorer again vs. Whitehall with 23 points but the Beavers were behind 45-30 at halftime and couldn't catch up. King finished with 14 points, Schroeder 13, Barnett eight and White five points. Jacobs had nine rebounds and King grabbed seven. Barnett finished with four assists. Augusta hosts Lincoln (6-7) at home this Friday, Jan. 20 and is at Independence (4-10) on Monday, Jan. 23 with a chance to move up from its 3-4 league record and current fourth place standing. Jacobs is now third in the Large Dairyland in scoring behind Whitehall's Devon McCune and Blair-Taylor's Evan Nehring averaging 15.3 points per game.
Eleva-Strum has played quite a few games recently but also continues to struggle. The Cardinals (1-13) lost Thursday, Jan. 12 to Alma/Pepin 49-34 at home. The game was close until A/P pulled away in the second half. Bradyn Olson led E-S in scoring with 11 points and teammate Carter Gunderson had 10 followed by Nick Olson in the scoring column with seven points, Nathan Bemis with four points and Larrigan Mitchell two points. Olson led the Cards in rebounds with seven while Gunderson had four assists. The Eagles (9-3) had three players in double figures led by Drew Seifert's 14 points. He also had a team-best five assists. Not even forty-eight hours later E-S played a rescheduled contest at home vs. Melrose-Mindoro, also tied for first in the Large Dairyland, and fell 58-19. Top scorers for Central were Daltion Krupka and Olson with eight and seven points followed by Gunderson with three, and two each for Nick Olson and Mitchell. Krupka and Jake Bjerke each had seven rebounds and Krupka had three assists. The Mustangs (10-2) had four players in double figures led by Korbin Lockington's 13 points. Teammate Dominic McRoberts had 11 points and 10 rebounds for a double-double. Then on Monday, Jan. 16 the Redbirds lost 53-50 in a close contested contest the Pirates (7-4) pulled out at the end at Cochrane-Fountain City. Gunderson had one of his best games of the season with 22 points and Krupka was also in double figures with 10 points followed in scoring by Nick Olson seven points, Bemis eight, Bradyn Olson two and Mitchell five points. Krupka had another double-double with 12 rebounds to go with three assists. Bjerke had five rebounds. Eleva-Strum will get a break of sort until they play again this Friday (at Eau Claire Immanuel Lutheran) next Monday (at Boyceville (7-6)) and Thursday, Jan 26 at home vs. Gilmanton.
