Waupaca and Fox Valley Lutheran went down to the wire in their first Eastern Valley Conference boys’ basketball matchup this season, with the Comets returning home from Appleton Dec. 9 with a 56-53 overtime win.

The Foxes evened the score Jan. 29 with a 46-34 win on the Comets’ home court.

FVL came up with half of its points in the second quarter to take a 30-17 lead into the locker room at halftime.

Five Foxes hit a three-pointer in the quarter after Waupaca led 8-7 after one period.

The 13-point deficit turned out to be too big of a hole for the Comets, as they never got any closer than 11 points in the second half.

“They played a defense we haven’t seen this year, a triangle-and-two,” coach Ron Weber said. “I thought that threw us out of rhythm in the first half.

“FVL played well,” he added. “I thought they looked improved from the first go-round. They did a nice job, so you have to give them credit, too. I don’t want to make excuses, but we had kids sick this week again.”

Starters Jake Ewald and Brando Vasquez missed two practices leading up to the game, but still led the Comets with 16 and 10 points, respectively.

“Brando and Jake missed the last two days with sickness and they come with no game plan,” Weber said. “It makes it a little harder for this team especially. It was a tough week. We were missing Matt (Waldschmidt) Monday and Brando and Jake Tuesday and Wednesday and we’re getting ready for a big game. We played the way things came about in practice, quite honestly.”

Connor Buchholz led the Foxes with 13 points.

The Comets headed to Winneconne Feb. 3 and will play at Little Chute at 7:15 p.m. Friday, Feb. 6.

“We’re kind of a one-trick pony,” Weber said. “If Brando and Tony (Blackwell) aren’t going to finish those penetrations, we’re in big trouble. Brando and Tony have to figure out how we can take their special abilities of beating just about anybody in our league and getting something positive out of those great dribble penetrations. We’re just not doing that now.”