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)