Rough second quarter hurts Louisburg in loss

Louisburg senior Sam Guetterman battles for a rebound during Monday’s league contest in Ottawa. The Wildcats fell to the Cyclones, 61-36, in their final game before the holiday break.

OTTAWA – For one quarter, the Louisburg High School boys basketball team stayed right with the No. 3 team in the state.

From there, Ottawa showed why it was ranked in the top half of Class 4A-Division I.

Ottawa used a big second quarter and handed Louisburg its second straight loss, 61-36, in its final game before the holiday break. The Cyclones outscored the Wildcats 17-4 before halftime and Louisburg was forced to play catch up for most of the game.

Louisburg and Ottawa found themselves in a back-and-forth first period that saw Ottawa take 15-13 advantage.

“The first quarter we were proactive and we set our tempo and good things happened,” Louisburg coach Jason Nelson said. “Then after that, a couple little things happened and everything changed. It is on me to get them in better position and have a better reaction to adversity. We burned a timeout and we talked about it, but it didn’t work.

“We saw against two of the best teams in our league that when we are proactive, and not reactive, then we are good. These boys want to be good and now we have two weeks to work on asserting ourselves for 32 minutes.”

The Wildcats (2-4) had a tough time stopping the Cyclone combination of Isaac McCullough and Perry Carroll, who combined for 42 of Ottawa’s 61 points. McCullough led all scorers with 23 points, including five 3-pointers. Carroll shot 9 for 11 from the field for 19 points.

“We let them get hot,” Nelson said. “But there were times where McCullough hit so many contested threes and I thought our defense was pretty good on most of them. When they get points like that, you just have to tip your hat to them.”

Louisburg senior Jayce Geiman led the Wildcats in scoring with 13 points, while fellow seniors T.J. Dover and Sam Guetterman scored eight and seven points, respectively. Junior Dalton Ribordy led Louisburg with four rebounds.

The Wildcats hope to stop their losing skid when they return from the holiday break on Jan. 6 when they travel to Baldwin. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m.

LOU               13           4             12           7 – 36

OTT               15           17           21           8 – 61

LOUISBURG (2-4): Jayce Geiman 13, T.J. Dover 8, Sam Guetterman 7, Grant Harding 4, Jake Hill 2, Dalton Ribordy 2. Totals: 15-36 2-4 36. 3-point field goals: 4, (Geiman 3, Guetterman)