Wildcats come up short on road against Eudora

Louisburg sophomore Maverick Rockers goes up for a shot Monday during the Wildcats’ game at Eudora. The Wildcats fell 65-58.

EUDORA – The Louisburg boys
basketball team was hoping to build off its momentum from the Baldwin
Invitational when the Wildcats traveled to Eudora on Monday for a make-up
contest.

The Wildcats just didn’t have
enough to keep up with the Cardinals.

Despite having a halftime lead,
Louisburg scored just seven points in the third quarter, which led to a 65-58
loss to Eudora.

“Hats off to Eudora, I thought
they played a solid game,” Louisburg coach Ty Pfannenstiel said. “They were
good defensively and we knew that coming in. They are a very disciplined team
and I think offensively that was one of their better nights from what I can
tell.

“We were kind of rolling there for
a while, but a lot of that was scoring inside, but we weren’t hitting anything
from the outside. We have to understand that we can’t continue to fire up shots
that aren’t in rhythm because a game can get away from us pretty quick and we just
have to do a better job with that.”

Eudora made things difficult on
the Wildcat defense as the Cardinals drove toward the basket and scored 32
points in the paint. That also allowed Eudora to knock down seven 3-pointers to
create a balanced attack.

“I think our guys were doing a
pretty good job of keeping them out of the paint, but our rotations were not
where they need to be,” Pfannenstiel said. “They were driving baseline and our
help defense was ok, but we were a little slow either to prevent the offensive
rebound or that little dump pass to the middle. We will be able to see that on
film and get that corrected. We just weren’t clicking on all cylinders.”

Louisburg (5-6) found itself down
17-15 at the end of the first quarter and Eudora extended that lead to 28-22
midway through the second. The Wildcats were able to make a run before halftime
and took the lead.

The Wildcats went on a 10-0 spurt to end the first half thanks to five straight points from Weston Guetterman, a basket from Garrett Rolofson and a 3-pointer from Maverick Rockers. Guetterman led the charge most of the night for Louisburg as he finished with 16 points, seven assists and played the entire game.

“Weston definitely played with the
most confidence that I have seen him play with all year,” Pfannenstiel said. “He
kind of took charge and I thought he was really good. That is what he has to be
for us. He has the ball in his hands a lot, and he creates a lot for us, so
hopefully he can build on this game.”

Eudora went on a run of its own to
start the third quarter as it went on a 12-2 spurt to grab a five-point lead
going into the fourth. The Cardinals would go on to extend the lead to 11 late
in the game and the Wildcats couldn’t recover.

Sophomore Julian Margrave had
another big game for the Wildcats as he finished with a team-high 21 points and
had six rebounds and two blocks. Sophomore Maverick Rockers came off the bench
to score nine points, while junior Ben Guetterman pulled down a team-high nine
rebounds.

Louisburg will try and bounce back
tonight when it travels to Spring Hill in a Frontier League matchup. Tipoff is
set for 7:30 p.m.

LOU               15           17           7             19 – 58

EUD               17           11           16           21 – 65

LOUISBURG (5-6): Julian Margrave
9-12 2-3 21; Weston Guetterman 5-16 6-8 16; Maverick Rockers 3-5 0-0 9; Garrett
Rolofson 3-5 0-0 6; Ben Guetterman 2-13 1-1 6. Totals: 22-57 9-12 58. 3-point
field goals: 5, (Rockers 3, B. Guetterman, Margrave)