ONALASKA — The Onalaska Luther High School boys basketball team showed the ability to come back from a large deficit on Monday, but Sparta wasn’t about to allow the Knights have a repeat performance on Friday.
The Spartans had a large lead cut to 10 by halftime, but Luther couldn’t duplicate the magic in what became an 89-63 loss to the Spartans.
Sparta (1-1) made 12 3-pointers and always seemed to have the necessary answer to keep Luther in a double-figure hole throughout the second half.
“They executed well, and we just did not do a very good job of defending the way we wanted to defend,” said Luther coach Dan Unke, whose team came back from 22 points down to beat Melrose-Mindoro in its first game. “We were missing on help (defense) and slow on help (defense) and closeouts.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do.”
The Spartans, who lost their first game to Mauston, made six 3-pointers in each half and were led by junior Everett Laufenberg’s 22 points. Senior Kayden Kaat also scored 20 for Sparta, which used a 9-1 run in the second half to pull away and create a comfortable lead for the rest of the game.
Junior Trent Berg scored on two straight possessions to get the Knights within 50-40 with 14 minutes, 3 seconds left, but James Thurston made one 3-pointer and Dylan Ziegler two for quick separation.
Ziegler’s second came from the left corner and off a pass from Kaat. That gave the Spartans a 59-41 advantage with 12:01 to go.
That, as they say, was the game.
Berg scored 17 and freshman Javon Zenke 16 for Luther, which made 6 of 19 attempts at 3-pointers and just 7 of 19 free throws. Seven of those missed free throws were in the final four minutes of the first half, but the Knight made a run anyway.
Sparta led 37-18 after a Laufenberg 3 before Luther scored 13 of the next 18 points. Zenke had two assists and scored once during the run, and junior Jonny Holub had the Knights within 42-32 on a 3-pointer from the corner with 5 seconds on the clock.
That put momentum squarely on the side of Luther as it prepared to discuss the second half.
“I felt great at halftime,” Unke said. “We told the guys that we have to stop digging this hole, but we had 19 turnovers in the first half, we missed free throws in the first half, and we were outrebounded in the first half, and we were down 10.
“If we could have come out and done this halfway well, we’d have been alright. But we came out in the second half to a lot of the same.”
The Knights host West Salem (1-0) in their Coulee Conference opener on Tuesday.
