By Brandon Walker
ABSAROKEE – The Lone Peak Big Horns varsity boys basketball team squared off against the Harrison-Willow Creek Wildcats on Dec. 14 in Absarokee. The Wildcats got the best of the Big Horns, winning 59-24.
LPHS fought hard, but had a tough time finding the bottom of the net on the offensive end of the floor. Senior Frankie Starz led all scorers with 14 points, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the all-around strong shooting from Harrison-Willow Creek.
Big Horn head coach John Hannahs admitted that it was just ‘one of those days’ for his team. “We didn’t really execute our offense all that effectively,” he said. “We would fall out of our offense just a little too quickly, [and] we weren’t quite patient enough.”
Lone Peak hung tough in the first quarter, only trailing by 6 points at the intermission. But a total of 4 points in the second and third quarters combined was the Big Horns’ unraveling, as the Wildcats put up 25 points in that stretch, to take a 27-point edge into the fourth. “It’s always tough to be down like that and just trying to find a way to get the ball in the hoop. It can get really frustrating, but they held their own really well,” Hannahs said.
LPHS (0-2) will have a chance to bounce back against the White Sulphur Springs Hornets at the Bough-Dolan Athletic Complex on Dec. 19. “We never quit. There was no loss of heart for the game. They played hard right up until the end. There’s something to be said for that,” Hannahs said. “At the end of the day we have this vision of this team who we want to be, and we see it in practice, and we’re just trying to transfer that to the game. We’re still finding out a little bit of who we are.”
Box Score – 1Q 2Q 3Q 4Q Total
HWC ———-17–14–11–17—59
LP ————–11—4—0—-9—24
Lone Peak: Frankie Starz 14, Mikey Botha 3, Nick Brester 2, Bennet Miller 2, Austin Samuels 2, Isaac Gilmore 1
Harrison-Willow Creek: Luke Cima 13, Joe Cima 10, Cristian Contreras 8, Vern Homner 7, Jackson Nye 6, Sage Buus 6, Kyle Homner 5, Rhett Donnelly 4
