Spring Hill hands Wildcats another loss

Louisburg junior Jake Hill puts up a shot between two Spring Hill defenders Friday at Louisburg High School. The Wildcats fell to Spring Hill 58-32 after the Broncos hit eight 3-pointers on the night.

During its losing streak, the Louisburg boys basketball team hasn’t caught many breaks.

Through much of the last nine games, the Wildcats have been trying to put a complete game together. There have been close losses, but some have been lopsided in nature.

Unfortunately, it was the latter for the Wildcats on Friday against Spring Hill at Louisburg High School.

Spring Hill caught fire from the outside as it connected on eight 3-pointers on the night and ran away with a 58-32 victory over Louisburg.

“We rebounded well, we pushed the ball well, but we can’t let a couple of small bits of adversity take us out of our game plan,” Louisburg coach Jason Nelson said. “We made our first three shots to start the game, we are assertive, going through our offense and then we go through a little bit of adversity and it takes us out of what we practice all the time. I guess I need to do a better job of prepping them.”

Senior Alex Dunn dives on the floor for a loose ball with teammate Dalton Ribordy on Friday.

The Wildcats (6-12) had a good idea the Broncos shot well from the outside. Even when Louisburg defenders got hands in the face of the Spring Hill shooters, they still found the bottom of the net.

Spring Hill pulled away in the second quarter as it hit six 3-pointers in the frame and took a 35-15 lead into halftime.

“Those definitely hurt because they were making shots and guys were doing what they were supposed to be doing,” Nelson said. “We were closing out, there were a few instances where our help-side defense wasn’t there, and that was unacceptable, but I thought we did ok. Coming out in the second half, we were assertive and got the looks we want, which is 15 feet and in. They just didn’t fall.”

Louisburg actually jumped out to an early lead as it scored on its first three possessions of the game, including two baskets from junior Sam Guetterman. From there, the Broncos went on a 12-2 run to take a 14-8 lead.

Then came a tough second quarter and the third quarter didn’t get much better as Spring Hill scored 19 more points to all but seal the win.

Junior Jayce Geiman led the Wildcats in scoring with eight points and junior Grant Harding added seven in the loss. Spring Hill’s Ivan Hughes led all scorers with game-high 22 points.

The Wildcats will try and snap their nine-game losing streak tonight when they host De Soto. Louisburg defeated De Soto earlier in the season and it hopes to end its regular season home schedule on a good note.

It will also be senior night for Louisburg as it will honor seniors Jacob Welsh, Alex Dunn and Ben Brummel. Tipoff for the game is set for approximately 7:30 p.m.

 LOUISBURG               8             7             11           4 – 32

SPRING HILL               14           21           19           4 – 58

LOUISBURG (6-12): Jayce Geiman 3-7 0-0 8, Grant Harding 3-9 1-2 7, Jacob Welsh 2-5 2-2 6, Sam Guetterman 2-4 0-0 4, Alex Dunn 1-2 2-2 4, Dalton Ribordy 1-1 0-0 2, Jake Hill 0-2 1-2 1. Totals: 12-36 6-8 32. 3-point field goals: 2, (Geiman 2)

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