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Tigers rebound to win two in a rowAfter a streak of bad luck left the Rush City boys basketball team with a string of four losses, the team bounced back to earn two wins in a row last week. The Tigers started the week with a 56-49 victory over Isle Feb. 3 and ended it with a 60-53 win over Aitkin Feb. 6 in two big Great River Conference wins. Defense was key to the win on the road against Isle, as the Tigers held the Huskies to 13 points in the first half ñ including only 2 second quarter points. Rush City tallied 26 in the first half for a 26-13 lead. The Huskies retaliated in the third, outscoring Rush City 21-12 and narrowing the lead to 38-34. The Tigers held on an outscored Isle 18-15 in the final quarter for the 56-49 win. ìIt was a nice win coming off an eight-day layoff after a game postponement,î Head Coach Gary Dreissig said. ìWe led in the first half because of our excellent defense.î Senior Kris Guentzel led the squad with 26 points and was 12 of 18 from the field. he also led in rebounds with 8. Senior Andrew Kaufmann chipped in 10 points and senior Kevin Bengtson added 7. Rush City hosted Aitkin in another GRC matchup last Friday, falling behind 16-12 after one quarter after taking an early 6-0 lead. The Tigers cut the Gobblerís lead to 2 at the half, trailing 27-25. The second half was dominated by Rush City, as the squad racked up 35 points against Aitkinís 26 for the 60-53 win. ìWe started the second half by scoring the first 9 points and basically kept that lead the remainder of the game,î Dreissig said. ìIt was nice to see our kids play with intensity for 32 minutes.î Guentzel led the offense again with 16 points and 8 rebounds, followed by Bengtson with 14 and freshmen Jerred Nelson with 10. The wins improve the Tigersí record to 5-10 overall, 4-4 in the GRC. This week, the team hosts Hinckley-Finlayson Thursday and Onamia next Tuesday. The East Central game originally scheduled for Jan. 30 was moved to Feb. 23. ©ECM Post Review |