Wildcats get revenge win over Spring Hill

Louisburg senior Garrett Rolofson puts up a shot over a couple Spring Hill defenders Friday during the Wildcats’ homecoming win over the Broncos.

It had been a rough stretch for the Louisburg boys basketball team as of late as the Wildcats had lost four of their last five games heading into Friday’s game against Spring Hill.

One of those four losses were to the Broncos and the Wildcats, at the time, didn’t look like themselves.

All that changed last Friday as Louisburg got a 44-34 revenge win over Spring Hill on homecoming to help put the Wildcats back on the right track.

It all started on the defensive end for the Wildcats as they held Spring Hill to 30 percent from the floor. They were also able to take away Spring Hill guard Cooper Jones and held one of the team’s top scorers to just two points.

“Our focus was to play with energy and toughness and I thought our kids played really, really well,” Louisburg coach Ty Pfannenstiel said. “Defensively, we wanted to harass them, especially (Cooper Jones and Alex Johnson) because they run a lot of their stuff through them. Our goal was to frustrate those guys and to hold Jones to two points is an accomplishment for our kids. That was our plan going in and I thought our kids executed that really well.”

It certainly wasn’t easy for the Wildcats (7-9) as they found themselves down for much of the first half, but did have a one-point lead going into halftime.

Sophomore Maverick Rockers hit a 3-pointer late in the first quarter to give the Wildcats a one-point lead. In the second quarter, Michael Waldron knocked down a 3-pointer and Julian Margrave hit a bucket late to help Louisburg to a 23-22 halftime advantage.

Margrave and Ben Guetterman came up with big baskets at the right time for Louisburg in the second half as the two players provided much of the offense in the final two quarters. Margrave scored a game-high 21 points and pulled down six rebounds, while Guetterman also scored in double figures with 10.

“We had good possessions at the right time,” Pfannenstiel said. “The kids are progressing offensively and I want us to be patient. When we were in the halfcourt, we had good shot selection, but we needed to be aggressive when it comes to driving the ball. That was definitely big for us and Julian and Ben really hit some big shots for us down the stretch.”

The Wildcats also had to deal with a little bit of foul trouble in the first half as starting point guard Weston Guetterman had two fouls in the first quarter, but the Wildcat bench was able to provide crucial minutes to help keep their team in the game.

That led to a big second half on both sides of the floor for Louisburg, especially on the defensive end, as it held Spring Hill to just 12 points in the final two quarters.

“We had some kids step up for us and it was a good team effort, even with some guys getting in foul trouble,” Pfannenstiel said. “Michael Seuferling played very good defense, as did Konnor Vohs and Maverick Rockers. All those guys really helped with Weston being out with two fouls. The main thing was that our defense was really good. We always preach that our defense has to be good every night. It was a slow it down and grind it out win.”

Louisburg will try to make it back-to-back wins tonight when it hosts Eudora for Senior Night. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m.

LOU               13           10           9             12 – 44

SH                  12           10           6             6 – 34

LOUISBURG (7-9): Julian Margrave 7-16 6-7 21; Ben Guetterman 3-11 4-4 10; Michael Waldron 2-6 0-0 5; Garrett Rolofson 2-3 0-0 4; Maverick Rockers 1-1 0-0 3; Weston Guetterman 0-3 1-3 1. Totals: 15-44 11-14 44. 3-point field goals: 3, (Rockers, Waldron, Margrave)

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