Posen basketball 101
by Peter Jakey– Managing Editor
The Posen boys? basketball team appears to be settling into a groove. Following Friday night?s exciting fourth quarter comeback against rival Mio, to end the Bolts? undefeated North Star League season, they finished off Au Gres Tuesday by putting up triple digits on the scoreboard. The final score in the win against Mio was 55-44, while they sent Au Gres with 101 wounds to lick. The final against the Wolverines was 101-68. The Vikes are riding a five-game winning streak and boosted their conference record to 7-1 to move into a first place tie. After slipping to 3-4 overall earlier this month, they are now 8-4 with another big league contest coming up Friday at Fairview. Next Wednesday, it?s back on the home court against Wolverine.
AFTER COMMITTING only six turnovers in the first half of Tuesday?s game, the Vikings outdid themselves with none in the second half. They also kept scoring, and it did not matter who was on the floor. The lead was 20, 60-40, heading in the third quarter when Posen?s scoring tandem of Nick LaTulip and Jordan Hincka put in the next 14 points to give the Vikings a 30-point advantage. They took a break on the bench, and the scoring did not stop, as Tyson Klecha and Shane Kuffel combined for six in the final minutes of the third. It was easy to see who was going to get the ?W? in this game; the only real drama was if Posen was going to hit the century mark. A three from Shane Hentkowski made the score 92-64, but a bucket from Tyler Krajniak and some quick points with a couple of minutes left really increased the chances.
Kuffel hit a field goal to make it 96-66, which set up some career highlight moments for Nathan Strzelecki. With 1:20 left, he knocked down a three ball that made the score 99-66. Kuffel had a chance to put them over the top but missed a pair of free throws with 41.8 seconds left. That seemed to be the last chance, until Strzelecki jumped a pass as Au Gres was setting up on offense and went in for the uncontested lay up. It gave Posen 101 points for the evening.
LaTulip had a season-high 33 points in the contest and added 15 boards, while Hincka had 24. Nick Idalski put in 10, and Paul Kroll cleaned the glass nine times. Only one player did not score. Chad Taylor finished with 30 for the visitors.
THE DRAMA was far more different in the Mio game. After a miserable shooting performance in the second quarter, Posen got it going in the third and tied the game at 19, but Mio found the scoring touch from the three point arc. The teams were answering each other?s shots. Unfortunately for Posen, Mio was getting more bang for their bomb. Mio?s lead with 2:09 left in the third was 10, 39-29. The comeback got going with Hincka scoring on a give-and-go to get it to eight and followed that with a put back shot, off a play started by an Aaron Romel steal. The score heading into the fourth was 39-33, Mio. Into the final quarter, Mio continued to take time off the clock in their stall offense, but kept making mistakes and turning the ball over without scoring. LaTulip hit a pair of free throws to get the Vikes within four, and with about three minutes to play, picked up an assist to Nick Delekta to get within two, 39-37. After four consecutive free throws were misses on both sides, Nick Delekta stepped to the line shooting a pair and made both to tie the game.
?THAT YOUNG man works so hard on his free throws in practice,? said head coach Steve Hentkowski. That brought the biggest cheer of the night, but that just warmed the crowd up. Mio ended a long scoring drought to retake the lead, but Idalski was left wide open on the left wing and hit a three to give the red and white a lead they wouldn?t relinquish. ?I saw there was no one within 10 feet of me so I decided to launch it,? said Idalski, who scored his only points of the game on the shot. ?I?ve made a few in my lifetime, so I thought I might as well try it. This place was wild.? After Hincka?s drive to the basket for points, fans started chanting ?Posen? and stomping their feet. Mio didn?t score again until the closing seconds. Hincka led all scorers with 15, with eight of his points coming in the third quarter. While LaTulip missed four free throws in a row in the
FOR THE second night in a row, everyone from the JV scored as the Vikings improved to 6-6 overall and 6-2 in the NSL. ?The kids played excellent,? said coach Gary Bisson after his boys womped Au Gres 73-34. ?I?m happy with the effort.? Scott Couture finished with 27 points, 12 rebounds, and eight assists. Justin LaPointe had 10 points and 10 assists. Nathan Street also added 10 points. Travis Hirschman collected nine boards and put in five points.
Couture scored a double double last Friday against Mio in a 71-30 blow out win. He had 21 points and 14 boards. Street also had a double double with 18 points and 10 boards. The final player scoring in double figures was LaPointe with 13. Jimmy King had seven off the bench.