Almond-Bancroft handed the Gresham Community High School boys basketball team its first loss of the season, 58-55, Tuesday in Gresham.
While Gresham’s Christian Haffner racked up 23 points, the Wildcats struggled to shut down Almond-Bancroft guard Evan Pagel, who scored 28 points, including five 3s.
Haffner, a junior guard, kept pace with Pagel in the first half, but was held to just a pair of free throws in the second half.
“Obviously, a couple plays here or there and it could have been a different result,” Gresham coach Jeff Zobeck said. “We’re still growing as a team. We’ve got some young guys that are getting some valuable lessons out there every night.”
The two teams remained close throughout the contest, with neither team able to pull away by more than six points.
Junior Killian Eggert came off the bench to score 13 points, 11 in the second half, as the Wildcats tried to keep up.
With about 2 minutes left in the third quarter Gresham had a 39-33 lead, but Pagel hit a 3, followed by a 3-point play by Austin Bunders to tie the game.
With Gresham (4-1, 3-1 Central Wisconsin Conference-10) down 58-55 with 4.5 seconds to play, Haffner’s 3-point try bounced off the rim.
“I’m kind of surprised they didn’t foul Christian when he first got it,” Zobeck said. “He got a pretty decent look at it. I know he’s frustrated. He wanted to make that shot and send it into overtime.”
Haffner also had six rebounds, four assists and two steals.
Gresham outrebounded Almond-Bancroft 21-8, with senior Scott Cerveny grabbing a team-high seven boards. He also had nine points, five assists and two steals.
“Like I’ve been saying all season, we haven’t really played very good basketball yet,” Zobeck said. “We may have played good basketball at times tonight. We had stretches where we built that six-point lead, but then we let them back into it quickly.”
Bunders finished with 11 points. Ethan Yonke added 10 for the Eagles (3-3, 3-1 CWC-10).
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Almond-Bancroft (58)
Bunders 5 1-2 11, Pagel 9 5-6 28, E. Yonke 3 4-6 10, Keenlance 2 1-1 5, Anderson 1 2-2 4
Gresham (55)
Haffner 8 3-4 23, Nietzer 2 0-0 4, Kazik 2 0-0 4, Cerveny 3 3-3 9, Eggert 6 0-0 13, Fischer 1 0-0 2
Almond-Bancroft 11 15 13 19 — 58
Gresham 7 22 13 13 — 55
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