Trojans fall from early lead in 53-36 loss to T-Falls
Surrounded on all sides and above, Troy senior Trevor Hoagland scores to make the Trojan lead 21-11 during the second quarter against Thompson Falls Friday. (Ben Kibbey/The Western News)
Troy senior Dylan Cummings shoots for three early in the second quarter against Thompson Falls Friday, regaining the Trojan lead 13-11. (Ben Kibbey/The Western News)
Troy senior Tyler Gromley scores in the first quarter against Thompson Falls Friday, pushing the Trojans into an 8-5 lead. (Ben Kibbey/The Western News)
Troy senior Alex Freund shoots for two, giving the Trojans a 6-5 lead in the first quarter against Thompson Falls Friday. (Ben Kibbey/The Western News)
Thompson Falls senior Grant Lundberg adds some jump to his height, but it wasn't enough to keep Troy senior Alex Freund from scoring first quarter Friday. (Ben Kibbey/The Western News)
Troy senior Trevor Hoagland puts up the first Trojan points of the game against Thompson Falls Friday. (Ben Kibbey/The Western News)
Despite leading at the half, 21-19, the Troy High School boys basketball team suffered a 53-36 loss to Thompson Falls Friday.
But, Troy Head Coach Justin Young simply sees the defeat Friday as one more step on the long road the Trojans are taking this year as they gradually bring up their game.
The game Friday started as a close battle, with Troy taking and then losing the lead to the Bluehawks in the first quarter.
In the opening minute of the second quarter, senior Dylan Cummings led the Trojan return with a three-point shot that put them up 13-11 over Thompson Falls.
In under two minutes, the Trojans had a 10-point advantage, but were unable to gain any more ground as the Bluehawks narrowed the score to a 21-19 Troy lead at the half.
Troy junior Moxley Roesler-Begalke started off the second half with a three-pointer, and by halfway into the quarter the Trojans were up 28-22.
But then Thompson Falls senior Grant Lundberg — who had been missing more than he made in the first half — suddenly seemed unable to miss. Scoring 12 points for the Bluehawks in the third quarter, Lundberg lead the way as Thompson Falls took a 43-29 lead by the end of the quarter.
The Trojans battled on to the end, but were unable to stop the Bluehawks as they stretched their lead to the final 53-36.
Young said that the 1-3-1 defense Thompson Falls rolled out gave Troy problems Friday.
Some of that was simply not taking open shots when they are there, he said. But the Trojans also weren’t used to having their passing lanes denied, and struggled to adapt.
Trojan ball movement looked crisp, Young said. Yet, they lost the ball trying to go for “home run” passes rather than taking the first open teammate.
“We’re just going to have to work on the breakout, dealing with that a little bit better,” he said.
In addition to his sudden turnaround on scoring, the 6 foot, 4 inch Lundberg also gave the Trojans headaches on rebounding in the second half as he stepped up his game.
“We have to get a little bit better at just boxing out — just pushing a little bit more under the board,” Young said. Rather than trying to scrap through tough situations, the Trojans will have to depend on their fundamentals to carry them through.
“Rebounding’s going to be a challenge all season long with us, but we need to just keep at it,” Young said. “And when we do get those stops, just capitalize on offense a little bit more — to me, that was the main thing of the game.”
Young said he felt the biggest weakness for Troy against Thompson Falls and their zone defense was simply making the open shots when they are there.
Yet, there were good things that came out of the game as well, Young said.
“We finally ran our man stuff. We haven’t ran it all season long, so that was encouraging. Now we just have to run our zone stuff as well as we ran our man stuff tonight — and we’ll get there,” he said.
Outside of Lundberg’s 12-point run in the third quarter, Troy didn’t lag far behind the Bluehawks in scoring, and outscored Thompson Falls 13-8 in the second quarter.
Young said he was happy with the Trojan defensive performance during the game, and pleased with the energy that went into — and came out of — the defensive plays.
“Overall, I’m just happy with the progress the boys have made, so far this season. I didn’t think we’d be where we’re at,” Young said.
“I didn’t think, to be honest, we’d be able to compete and hang with some of these teams in Western B,” he said. “But with Mission, with T-Falls, it may have not been pretty, but I think we’ve shown, if we are mentally tough — mentally disciplined — we’re going to be able to play and compete with just about anybody.
The Trojans will play next at Bigfork on Friday, Jan. 4, with junior varsity games scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. Their next home game is against Noxon on Thursday, Jan. 10, with junior varsity scheduled to start at 4 p.m.
Friday, Dec. 21
Thompson Falls 53, Troy 37
TF: 11 8 24 10 - 53
T: 8 13 9 7 - 37
Thompson Falls: Nathan Schraeder 9 points; Ryan Schraeder 2 points; Ethan Brown 7 points; Grant Lundberg 18 points, 2-5 FT; Brian Henry 5 points; Jaden Isaac 4 points; Trey Fisher 4 points; Cody Burk 4 points
Troy: Alex Freund 8 points, 2-4 FT; Dylan Cummings 3 points; Hunter Leighty 2 points; Trevor Hoagland 11 points, 4-4 FT; Tyler Gromley 6 points; Ricki Fisher 4 points; Moxley Roesler-Begalke 3 points