Bronco boys fall in two contests

While last week’s rematches with Hitchcock County and Southwest didn’t have a different result for the Wauneta-Palisade boys basketball team, Head Coach Joseph Frecks said the games showed how far the Broncos have improved.
“Even though the scoreboard didn’t show the result we wanted, these two rematch games from early December really showed how much we have grown and improved as a team over the last month. We look forward to four good practices this week to continue on that growth,” Frecks said.
WP has a game at Perkins County (4-5) Friday and at home Saturday against Garden County (6-2).
“Perkins County and Garden County are both solid teams.  We will look to continue to grow on our defensive effort and work on shooting hard this week in practice in order to be successful,” Frecks said.
The Broncos will play Paxton (6-2) Jan. 19 before the start of the RPAC tournament Jan. 21.
WP hosted Hitchcock County (7-2) Friday and Frecks said his team played tough.
“We started fast for the first time this year and that was a big positive to get up 8-4 to start the game,” he said.  
The Falcons closed out the quarter on a 15-point run, thanks, in part, to a four-point possession that Frecks said swung momentum to the visitors’ favor.
Despite the 24-56 loss, Frecks said his team was still playing tough in the fourth quarter.
Michael Duvel led WP with 12 points.
With only one first quarter field goal, the Broncos got off to a slow start Saturday against Southwest. WP trailed 5-11 with 30 seconds left in the first quarter, but the Roughriders tacked on a quick six points.
“We couldn’t ever dig out of that hole. We fought well and actually outscored Southwest 15-12 in the middle two quarters and had the game within seven points multiple times late in the third quarter,” Frecks said.
Behind 20-29 at the start of the fourth quarter, WP couldn’t slow down Southwest in the fourth quarter of the 24-48 loss.
“I was very proud of our defensive effort throughout the game,  The difference in the game was that Southwest hit the open shots when they got them and we didn’t,” Frecks said.
Duvel and Ashton Wheeler each scored six points for WP.