vs. Bennington

12/2/11            At Wahoo           
Wahoo                 61
Bennington        55

 The Wahoo Warriors defeated the Bennington Badgers 61-55 in the opening game of the season on Friday night. Bennington opened up a 12-7 lead on the Warriors after a Grant Siekman trey. A Casey Brown trey, a Max Cook bucket and a Mitch Shukis bucket gave the Warriors a 14-12 lead, before Siekman third trey of the quarter put Bennington up 15-14 after one. 

The Warriors built a 6 point 2nd quarter lead at 28-22 after two Max Cook free throws, and a Jon Abbott bucket towards the end of the half put Wahoo up 30-26 at halftime. 

The third quarter stayed tight the whole way,  and ended with Wahoo up 43-42 heading into the 4th quarter. Midway through the 4th quarter, Ben Scheef drives and converts a 3 point play to put Wahoo up 51-46. A Michael Wickham trey cuts the lead back to 51-49 with 2:30 to play. Another Ben Scheef basket made it 53-49, and a Max Cook free throw made it 54-49 with 1:19 left. The Badgers immediately answered as Siekman hit his 7th trey of the night to cut the lead to 54-52. Two Max Cook free throws pushed the lead to 56-52 with a minute left. The Warriors though would make 5 of their final 6 free throws, two coming from Max Cook, two from Ben Scheef, and one from Casey Brown, to pull out the 61-55 win. 

Coach Scheef: “It was a very hard fought win over a big, physical Bennington team. We got beat pretty soundly on the glass, which is a concern, but made enough plays to pull out the win.  Max Cook hit clutch baskets all night long when we needed them.  Ben Scheef made some big plays in the 4th quarter for us, and Jon Abbott did a lot of good things tonight.  Brook Stuart came off the bench and drew two charging fouls and gave us some great minutes."

 Max Cook led the Warriors with 27 points, 6 boards and 6 steals.  Ben Scheef added 14 points and 6 rebounds. Jon Abbott had 11 points and 6 boards. Casey Brown had a team high 7 boards. 

The Warriors will now travel to Seward on Saturday to take on the Bluejays.

12/8/11