The Shawano Community High School boys basketball took its first Bay Conference loss of the season, losing to Hortonville 59-50 Friday night in a packed SCHS field house.
The Hawks, coming off a big win over West De Pere on Thursday night, struggled to corral Hortonville sophomore Kyle Witthuhn, who scored nine points in the first quarter on his way to a game-high 25 points.
“Our kids played hard throughout,” Shawano coach Chris Kellett said. “Kyle Witthuhn just was the best player on the floor tonight. He hit some tough shots and that got them going. He was super aggressive and we just couldn’t match him.”
Shawano (9-5, 7-1 Bay) fell behind 18-13 in the first quarter, but took a 19-18 lead in the second quarter when Jack Lacy, a 6-foot-5 junior forward, hit a 3-pointer with 6:26 left in the half.
Outside shots kept the Hawks in the game. Shawano hit on eight of them, including three from Lacy and three from Dillon Frechette.
“They switch screens constantly,” Kellett said. “So, you’re inclined to get a lot of outside jumpers with them because they’re stuck down in the paint. We hit some early on and then slowly started to fade away. That wasn’t necessarily our game plan, it kind of came to us.”
In the second half, Hortonville (6-6, 6-2 Bay) maintained a steady lead, at one point extending it to nine points, but Shawano hung around.
Zack Sousek, a 5-foot-10 junior, hit a 3 with 6:48 in the fourth quarter to pull the Hawks to within 46-43, but Shawano’s rally stalled down the stretch.
“I thought they played hard tonight, shots just didn’t fall,” Kellett said. “Everything goes a lot better when shots fall for you. It’s not that we didn’t play well, it’s just that Hortonville played better.”
Lacy and Sousek led Shawano with 15 points each. Lacy also had six rebounds. Sousek had seven assists, two rebounds and two steals.
The loss dropped the Hawks a half-game behind Seymour (11-1, 8-1 Bay), which blew out Marinette 79-19, in the Bay Conference standings.
Hortonville (59)
Lasinski 1 2-3 4, Lillge 4 0-0 10, Frederick 1 0-1 2, Killoren 1 1-2 3, Sommers 2 0-0 4, Witthuhn 9 7-9 25, Thompson 3 3-4 11
Shawano (50)
D. Frechette 3 0-3 9, Sousek 5 5-6 15, Bartz 2 0-0 6, Lacy 6 0-0 15, Quinn 2 1-2 5
Hortonville 18 14 14 13 — 59
Shawano 13 14 14 9 — 50
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