A busy five day stretch saw the Huskies pick up a pair of wins in three games, including an impressive defensive performance in a 51-38 win over Mt. Lake-Butterfield-Odin Tuesday night.
The Huskies have evened their record at 2-2 on the season and stand at 1-0 in the Southwest Conference.
JCC 51, MLBO 38
The Huskies scored just 14 points in the second half but that was two more than MLBO managed as JCC beat the Wolverines 51-38.
The Huskies got 12 points – all on three-pointers – from Nolan Luhmann and 10 from Trevon Bargfrede as they built a 37-26 lead at the half.
Ty Schwarting and Joel Hartzler both scored four points in the second half to lead the Huskies to the win.
Luhmann finished with a game-high 14 points.
Bargfrede scored 12 points and grabbed 19 rebounds in the win.
Schwarting finished with seven points.
Perhaps the best stat for the Huskies was their 14 fouls for the game. JCC had committed a total of 87 fouls in their first three games, allowing their opponents to shoot 128 free throws in those games.
The Wolverines shot 10 free throws and made eight, well below the average for a JCC opponent this season.
MCW 64, JCC 54
The Huskies tied the game in the first minute of the second half and led 46-44 with just more than six minutes remaining but saw Martin County West finish the game on a 20-8 run to pick up a 64-54 win Monday night.
A three-pointer by Bryce Christopher gave the Huskies their first lead of the second half at 41-40 but the Mavericks answered with a three of their own to regain the lead.
Hartzler tied the game at 43 with his only bucket of the night and Schwarting put the Huskies back on top at 46-44 with a three-pointer.
MCW rallied to score the next six points but the Huskies hung around, coming within a point after Skylar Prochaska grabbed an offensive rebound and put it in while being fouled with 2:56 left in the game. Prochaska made the ensuing free throw to pull JCC within a point at 52-51 but the Mavericks scored eight straight points to seal the win.
The teams played an even first eight minutes of the game but MCW scored six straight points to take a 15-9 lead.
A three-pointer by Christopher and old-fashioned three-point play by Schwarting tied the game at 15 before MCW surged to a 22-15 lead.
The Maverick lead grew to 10 points at 27-17 and was 30-21 before the Huskies finished the game on a 7-0 run, with the final four points coming from Bargfrede.
Alex Hohenstein tied the game early in the second half when he grabbed a rebound and put it in.
The Mavericks led by six at 40-34 before JCC scored seven points in a row to take a 41-40 lead, with Christopher scoring the final five points of the rally.
Christopher scored 14 points to lead the Huskies, with Schwarting scoring 12 and Bargfrede adding 10.
Sukalski said he liked the effort his team showed in the loss.
“Again, our attitude and effort has been very good,” he said. “If we keep getting that we can improve on the other stuff.”
The other stuff Sukalski referred to was foul trouble and getting out-rebounded.
“We can’t keep sending teams to the line 30 and 40 times a game,” he said. “We’ve got to cut down on fouls and rebound better. Those are two glaring areas of improvement right now.”
JCC 72, Luverne 50
In a game that was closer than the final score indicates, the Huskies beat Luverne 72-50 last Friday in Jackson.
The Huskies never trailed in the game but allowed the Cardinals to pull within nine points with less than eight minutes left in the game before finishing the game on a 19-6 run to pull away for the win.
Christopher got the Huskies going early, scoring JCC’s first seven points for a 7-2 lead.
After the Cardinals drew close at 7-5, the Huskies scored 15 straight points for a 22-5 lead. Schwarting scored five points during the rally to ignite the Huskies.
The Huskies had a little luck on their side during the rally as the Cardinals missed their first 11 free throws of the game despite the first eight fouls all being called against JCC.
After Hartzler grabbed a rebound and put it in to give the Huskies a 31-10 lead, the Cardinals scored 10 points in a row to cut into JCC’s lead.
Zach Copley scored with 1:03 left in the opening half to end the Luverne rally and Schwarting added a free throw with 34 seconds left to send the Huskies into halftime with a 34-20 lead.
The lead stayed in double digits until Luverne rallied to cut JCC’s lead to 53-44. From there, Schwarting continued his hot second half to lead the Huskies to the win.
Schwarting scored 15 of his 26 points in the second half.
Christopher had 10 points in the first half and he and Luhmann both made a pair of three-pointers.
Hartzler added eight points for JCC.
Up next
The boys host Redwood Valley tomorrow (Friday) and Granada-Huntley-East Chain Saturday. The Huskies then travel to Marshall next Tuesday to face the Tigers.
