Black Hills breezes past Onalaska

By Dylan Wilhelm / dylan@chronline.com
Posted 12/28/24

TUMWATER — The Black Hills boys basketball team had little issue taking care of Onalaska on Saturday, as the Wolves took down the Loggers 74-43.

The Wolves scored 46 points in the first half to build a …

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Black Hills breezes past Onalaska

Posted

TUMWATER — The Black Hills boys basketball team had little issue taking care of Onalaska on Saturday, as the Wolves took down the Loggers 74-43.

The Wolves scored 46 points in the first half to build a 21-point lead, a result of more efficient and careful offense.

“We took care of the basketball better than we have all year,” Black Hills coach Jeff Gallagher said. “Over the last few days in practice, we’ve been hammering on taking care of the basketball … I thought it was huge.”

The Wolves slowed down slightly offensively as the second half went along, but the defense continued to make life difficult for the Loggers.

Gallagher said that they turned to an old zone defense that they weren’t anticipating using this season, and he was pleased to see it make a “big, big difference.”

Peyton Faught led the Wolves offensively with six threes, four of which came in the first half, finishing with 18 points. 

Four other Wolves finished in double figures, including Talon Merrill, who scored 13, and Quinton Morrill, who scored 11. Tristan DeVille and James Morgan both added 10.

Blaze Underhill was the only Logger to score more than 10 points, finishing with 14.

“They do a lot of the stuff that we want to do,” Onalaska coach Fred Sturza said. “They’ve just been in it a little longer than us … They were a lot more polished than we were.”

Sturza added that one of the biggest reasons that Black Hills was able to pull away was its success on the offensive boards.

“We could get away with that against some of the smaller schools,” Sturza said. “We didn’t get a body in and we paid for it.”

Saturday’s matchup in Tumwater was Onalaska's (3-5, 3-4 C2BL) first non-league game of the season. They began with seven league games in a row, losing the first four before rattling off three straight wins prior to the loss to Black Hills.

The Loggers will have two more non-league matchups — King’s Way Christian on Thursday and Raymond-South Bend next Saturday, Jan. 4 — before returning to league play Jan. 7 at home against Toutle Lake.

“It kind of humbles us,” Sturza said. “It lets us know what we need to work on when Monday comes back … When we get back into league play, I think our confidence is gonna be a lot higher.”

Black Hills (5-3) has yet to play a league game, but Gallagher knows that every game they have played so far is building towards league play. After a 2-2 start, the Wolves have now won three of their last four games.

The Wolves will also have two more non-league matchups before they begin league play, as they’ll host River Ridge on Friday and head to Mark Morris next Saturday, Jan. 4.

“Our league is gonna be a dogfight,” Gallagher said. “It’s gonna be really tough. It’ll be nice to test ourselves against somebody from our district down south.”