For the Tomahawk Leader
ELCHO – The Tomahawk Hatchet boys’ basketball team dropped two games last week.
Elcho
The Hatchets traveled to Elcho on Tuesday, Jan. 11 to take on the Hornets in a non-conference basketball game.
Although Elcho is a small school, their basketball players are very big in size. The Hatchets were in for a tough task as they took on a team that was much bigger than them.
The first half started out okay with Tomahawk on fire from 3. Elcho went on a 1:35 run which involved a lot of Hatchet turnovers against their pressure in the full court. Elcho took a 44 to 21 lead into the halftime break.
Tomahawk came out in the second half and played much better for the second half, but it just wasn’t enough to overcome the big hole they had dug themselves in the first half. The Hatchets did win the second half 22 to 20, but that made the final score 64 to 43, with Tomahawk taking the loss.
The Hatchets were led in scoring by Gavin Palmer and Tyler Welke, who both had 12 points.
“I thought we learned a really good lesson today,” head coach Jacob Jarvensivu said after the game. “We had a lapse in our effort for about a six-minute stretch in the first half and it cost us for the entire game. If that happens at any time, we can lose to anybody, and I think the kids learned that today. We just need to continue working on being perfect with our effort and we can be a pretty good basketball team.”
Rhinelander
On Friday, Jan. 14, Tomahawk hosted Rhinelander for the Hatchets’ fifth conference matchup of the season.
The Hatchets played well in the first half, despite not shooting the ball at a very high level. The score of the halftime break was 32 to 19, with Rhinelander having the edge.
Tomahawk’s shooting didn’t improve in the second half, and the team finished the game shooting 21% from the field, while the Hodags shot 45%. Rhinelander’s lead expanded as the second half went on and Tomahawk’s shooting woes continued.
The final score was 65 to 35, with Rhinelander claiming the victory.
The Hatchets were led in scoring by Tyler Welke who had 11 points.
“I thought that we played really hard and executed really well in this basketball game,” Jarvensivu stated. “This was one of the best games we have played all year and I’m really proud of the way that our kids competed against a very good Rhinelander team. Rhinelander tried to do some things that we were unprepared for, and when they did them, I thought our boys handled it really well and dealt with all of the adversity that came our way during the game. I thought it was a really good bounce-back game after a little bit of a letdown against Elcho, and I look forward to taking this momentum into a four-game week next week.”
The Hatchets’ busy week started with back-to-back home games, with Mosinee traveling to Tomahawk on Monday, Jan. 17, and Prentice coming to town on Tuesday, Jan. 18. The Hatchets will host the Goodman/Pembine Patriots on Thursday, Jan. 20. On Friday, Jan. 21, Tomahawk will visit Northland Pines. Both games are set to get underway at 7:15 p.m.