Short-handed Wildcats fall to Burlington in first road game

Louisburg senior Brady Hickey pulls up for a shot Tuesday at Burlington. Hickey scored a team-high 12 points in the Wildcats’ 63-51 loss.

BURLINGTON — Before Louisburg tipped off with Burlington on Tuesday, the Wildcats were faced with a little bit of adversity.

Louisburg found itself down a starter and a main player off the bench, and the Wildcats found themselves a little short-handed for their first road tilt of the season.

Not being at full strength, and some foul trouble, hurt the Wildcats as they fell, 63-51, to Burlington.

“We missed two of our ball handlers and that was evident, especially when we got into foul trouble when they were pressuring us,” Louisburg coach Ben Doll said. “Our biggest thing was we just didn’t play a very tough style of basketball when there were 50-50 balls or rebounds that we needed to get. We had plenty of moments where we got it to 10 or under, but then they would get a bucket and we can’t win that way.”

In the absence of Luke Hill and Myles Vohs, who were out with an injury and illness, a pair of Louisburg seniors stepped up. Brady Hickey and Brock Vohs played all 32 minutes and were scoring options for the Wildcats.

Hickey finished with a team-high 12 points and Vohs added 11 points to go along with six rebounds.

“Brady did a good job and I don’t think he ever came out of the game and I don’t think Brock did either,” Doll said. “We used some timeouts to try and get them a break, but there was never a moment where they were gassing and saying they needed to come out. That was awesome to see and they played tough. Once we are at full strength, it will be fun to see how good those guys can be when they get a little bit of a break.”

Burlington started out strong offensively as it scored 21 points in the first quarter and never looked back. Louisburg found itself down 34-22 at halftime.

The Wildcats tried to make a couple different runs in the second half, as it trimmed the Burlington lead to under 10, but Burlington had an answer on every occasion.

Burlington’s Sage Fejfar scored 19 points to lead the Wildcats and was one of four players to score in double figures.

“Part of the problem that they gave us was they just hit open shots,” Doll said. “(Fejfar) was solid and we knew they were going to run stuff for him. But then when we focused on him, we lost track of a few of their others guys and they hit open jumpers. At this level, playing varsity basketball, that is something you should do. Our rotations weren’t good and a lot of things just hit us.”

For Louisburg, senior Nathan Parker just missed double figures in scoring as he finished with nine points, to go along with five rebounds and three assists.

Junior Conlee Hovey finished with seven points and seven rebounds, while junior Gavin Lohse registered a team-high nine rebounds.

Louisburg will try and bounce back tonight when it hosts Anderson County. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m.

LOU 13 9 15 14 — 51

BUR 21 13 11 18 — 63

LOUISBURG (1-1): Brady Hickey 4-11 2-2 12; Brock Vohs 5-10 1-3 11; Nathan Parker 4-15 0-0 9; Conlee Hovey 3-5 1-2 7; Gavin Lohse 3-7 0-3 6; Bristol Barbour 1-3 1-2 3; Ethan Kush 1-4 0-0 3. Totals: 21-56 5-12 51. 3-point field goals: 4, (Hickey 2, Parker, Kush)