Wolves’ offense sputters against Eagles
By Neal A. Shipman
Farmer Editor
The Watford City boys basketball team’s season record dropped to 1-2 this past week as the Wolves fell to District 15 rivals, the New Town Eagles, 74-60, last Thursday evening.
This week, the Wolves travel to North Shore/Plaza/White Shield in district action on Thursday.
New Town 74, Watford City 60
In the battle between the top two teams in District 15 and Region 8, the New Town Eagles came out on top over Watford City in their match-up of the season as the Eagles took advantage of poor shooting by the Wolves to take a 74-60 win.
In a very fast-paced game, the Wolves and Eagles swapped leads throughout the first eight minutes of play before Watford City posted a 20-16 lead at the end of the first quarter of play.
But the Eagles took advantage of poor shooting by the Wolves in the second quarter as New Town outscored Watford City 20-9 to hold a seven-point, 36-29, lead at halftime.
After making some halftime adjustments, Watford City battled back from a nine-point deficit in the third quarter to trail New Town by five points, 54-49, going into the final eight minutes of play.
In the final stanza, the Wolves got to within three points, 56-53, on a Curtis Lohse three-pointer with just under 6½ minutes left in the game. But that would be as close as Watford City would get. The Wolves struggled the remainder of the game getting their shots to fall.
Tyler Flatland drained a pair of free throws midway through the fourth quarter to get Watford City back to a three-point deficit, 58-55, but then New Town put up 12 unanswered points, including a dunk by Preston Smith to ice the game for the Eagles.
Watford City had two players in double-figure scoring with Curtis Lohse pacing the Wolves with 17 points, including five three-pointers, while Trey Jacobson netted 14 points.
Rounding out the scoring for Watford City was Nick Liebel with nine points, Shawn Fulwider and Tyler Flatland with eight points, Sterling Ross with two points, while Tyler Bates and Jason Shipman ended the game with one point each.
New Town 16 36 54 74
Watford City 20 29 49 60