The Manawa Boys basketball team under first year Head coach Joe Isham ended their season-long losing streak by defeating Wisconsin Valley Lutheran during the Almond-Bancroft Holiday tournament.
Last Thursday they returned to conference action and they hosted pre-season favorite Amherst.
The Falcons under Gregg Jensen in his 27th year at the helm, had little trouble with the Wolves, as they remained unbeaten in conference play with their 59-26 victory over the Wolves. Jensen during his tenure led the Falcons to over 400 victories with one state appearance.
Amherst used a key 15-0 run during the second quarter to seal Manawa’s fate but also only committed six turnovers during the entire game. Four of those turnovers occurred during the final eight minutes when the outcome was no longer in doubt.
The Falcons jumped out to a 4-0 lead and never looked back. Senior Danny Roenz drained a three pointer and put Manawa within one point at 6-5 with 4:05 left in the opening eight minutes.
Then the speed and quickness took over as Amherst reeled six quick points forcing a timeout to regroup. Their full court man-to-man pressure continued to bother the Wolves.
Two turnovers to end the first quarter were quickly converted into baskets as Amherst lead 16-9 after one quarter of play.
Two turnovers to open the second quarter resulted in five more points including a three-pointer by Jared Lutz and the Falcons Were up 21-9.
Junior Austin Peterson’s basket finally ended the streak, following senior Jestin Heimbruch’s free throw the Falcons finished the half with 15 unanswered points to hold a healthy 38-15 lead at halftime.
Lutz would tallied six points during that streak including an old fashioned three-point play.
In attempt to slow down the Falcons the Wolves switched to a zone defense resulting in a low scoring second half. The Falcons used our strategy to their advantage as they had several possessions of over a minute on the game clock. The Wolves were nearly shutout during the final quarter before sophomore Wesley Krauss completed a rare four-point play with only 1.2 seconds left to play.
Ben Felckowski lead all scores with 14, and Lutz and Steve Maves chipped 11 each. Danny Roenz led the Wolves with 7.