WAUSA — The Wausa boys basketball team is 7-7 following a 44-42 loss at No. 1 seed Walthill in Lewis and Clark Conference Tournament action on Jan. 29.
Wausa, the eighth seed on the Lewis side of the 2024 tournament bracket, recently split two games following a few weeks of hibernation due to inclement winter weather.
The Vikings dropped a 47-33 decision to Summerland on Jan. 25 and then recorded a 52-48 win over Winside on Jan. 26.
“Against Summerland, we started the game slow, cut it to seven with three minutes left in the second quarter,” Wausa head coach Tim Schindler said. “We had a couple of bad turnovers and we were down 16 at half. We cut into the lead again, but couldn’t turn it around.
“Winside started out hot and led early. We turned to some trapping defense to flip the momentum. It was a pretty even game in the second half, but we were able to get stops late and control the clock to get the win.”
Against Summerland, Wausa freshman Matthew Schindler (14 points) and junior Brady Bloomquist (nine points) had notable scoring performances, while against Winside, Matthew Schindler (15 points), Bloomquist (11 points), senior Cashe Carlson (nine points) and sophomore Preston Schlote (seven points) led the way for Wausa.
“Obviously, we didn’t get too many practices in with school being cancelled almost every day,” Carlson said. “(Against Winside) I would say that we ended up being the more physical team like we wanted to. We wanted to go out there and throw the first punch and we came out really hot.
Wausa is in the top bracket of the conference tournament.
“The guys know they are capable of playing good basketball,” coach Schindler said. “We just got to keep striving to get better every chance we can till then.”
The time off may have helped the Vikings as they get ready for an intense last leg of the season.
“We ended off the Christmas break with the win against Niobrara and then we didn’t play for another two weeks, so we kind of lost the momentum there,” Carlson said. “We played pretty well against a very good team (Summerland) and we didn’t get the win, but for our first game back, we executed pretty well.
“Then we won the Winside game and those were backto- back dogfights. It always is with Winside. They’re a subdistrict team that we have to play against. We were playing like we can. In the first half, we found ourselves and it was back to normal. I believe we’re ready to go now. We responded very well, and the offense that we were running, we were connecting very well. The (time off) may be good for us in the long run.”
