Thunderbirds battle Warhawks to the final second

The tenth-ranked Iola-Scandinavia Thunderbirds traveled to face their Central Wisconsin-East rivals, the Weyauwega-Fremont Warhawks, on Dec. 11.

Thunderbirds took an early 19-14 lead, as Alex Zielke scored on a driving layup to give his team the five-point lead.

Korz Loken gave Iola a 23-18 advantage with an offensive rebound put back, and Zielke scored in the paint and drew a foul to make the score 26-18.

A Warhawks turnover led to a fast break for the Thunderbirds, as a pass ahead to Jaric Thulien gained them two points as he scored on a contested layup to give Iola a 30-18 lead.

Thunderbirds’ RJ Opperman, who led his team with 14 points, on Iola’s early lead. “It was being in the right place at the right time, my teammates did a great job finding the cuts, I was just lucky enough to get open.”

A 6-0 run by the Warhawks shortened the gap on the scoreboard as they went into halftime down 30-24.

In the second half, the Warhawks came out aggressively, going on a 12-1 run capped off by a three by Ethan Koplien to take a 36-31 lead over Iola.

The Thunderbirds responded with a run of their own, scoring eight unanswered points with an offensive rebound put back by Charlie Tappa to make the Iola lead 39-36.

In the final five minutes of play, Iola kept the lead out of reach for the Warhawks, but Weyauwega stayed with a one- or two-score possession throughout the remainder of the game.

Iola took a 53-49 lead with 16 seconds left to play, and the Warhawks’ Broc Billington made a wild three-point shot with seven seconds left in the game to make the deficit 53-52.

A foul by the Warhawks sent Zielke to the free-throw line. Zielke would make the first, but miss the second to extend the Thunderbirds’ lead to 54-52. On the miss, Warhawks would get the rebound, and a reaching foul by Zielke would send Jace Weed to the free throw line for Weyauwega for a one-and-one.

Weed missed the free throw, but the Warhawks would get the offensive rebound, but a put-back was thwarted by a blocked shot by Loken, and sealed the 54-52 victory.