Preseason tournament sees competition as Orioles fall to Wausau West, Northland Pines

Coming out of the Thanksgiving weekend tournament at Wausau West, the boys varsity now has experience for the regular season, though it sustained two losses in the process. Playing Friday Nov. 25, the Orioles fell to Wausau West 68 – 48, followed with a loss to Northland Pines on Saturday 82 – 47. Coach Dakota Nichols took it in stride.

“We played Wausau West and Northland Pines, two really good programs that have great depth,” he said. “Playing tough opponents in our non-conference schedule will benefit us when we start conference play.” With experience gained for the first regular season game Tuesday Nov. 29, here’s how it went down at Wausau West.

Playing in the first half Friday night, Wausau West scored first, but the Orioles Landon Karlen made up for this with a two pointer at just over 14 minutes left in the half. This was followed shortly thereafter with a three-pointer by the Orioles Haydn Gustafson, one of three in the first half and five overall for the night. With more back and forth between the Orioles and Wausau West, Stanley-Boyd took a full time out with 8:06 left in the first, the score 28 – 9 in Wausau’s favor.

Coming out of the time out, Gustafson made his third three-pointer of the night while Wausau West took to the free throw line and the Orioles Henry Hoel answered back with a two-pointer with six minutes left in the first half. Karlen then made a two pointer on the recovery, the Warriors taking a full time out at 3:50, the score 22 – 16 Wausau. With another two-pointer by Hoel and answering by Wausau West, a couple of two-pointers and a free throw by Hoel brought the score 31 – 25 Warriors as the buzzer sounded.

Coming out of the half, Logan Burzynski made a two pointer plus two free throws, while Dylan Goebel made a pair of free throws and Gustafson scored a two pointer with two three-pointers and brace of free throws. The Orioles Cam Kohls made a free three, while Hoel made three more two-pointers before the night was over. Returning the following night to play Northland Pines, the Orioles took away 47 points. Of these, two were three pointers by Gustafson, two were three pointers by Hoel, one a three pointer by Burzynski, and one each by Brett Kroeplin and Carter Isenberger.

The Orioles next play Neillsville on Thursday, Dec. 2 at Stanley- Boyd. Game start is 7:30 p.m.