Fremont-Mills wins fourth straight

The Fremont-Mills boys basketball team won its fourth straight game with a 45-40 victory over Nishnabotna in Corner Conference action Friday.

The Knights (4-1 overall, 4-0 in the conference) overcame a sluggish first quarter in which both teams combined for just nine points to pull away for the win thanks to its defense. In five games this season, no Knight opponent has eclipsed 60 points.

Parker Powers paced the Knights with 16 points. Mackenzy Lang pitched in 10 and Tristan Melgoza eight.
    
East Mills 59,
Essex 40
The East Mills boys basketball team out-scored Essex 34-7 over the second and third quarters in a 59-40 Corner Conference victory Friday.

The Wolverines (4-1 overall, 4-1 in the Corner Conference) dominated inside with the post-play of Keegan Wederquist and Noah Meyer.

Wederquist led the Wolverines with 17 points and 13 rebounds while Noah Meyer added 12 points and 11 rebounds. East Mills also held a 40-26 rebounding edge.

Gunnar Glasgo led Essex with 18 points.

Fremont-Mills 63,
Sidney 52
Fremont-Mills out-scored Sidney 25-8 in the fourth quarter to rally back from a six point defecit in a 63-52 victory Thursday.

The Knights trailed by eight at halftime and six entering the final frame before getting on track offensively. F-M shot 52.2 percent from the field (23-of-44) and held a 30-28 rebounding edge.

Sam Phillips paced the Knights with 27 points and 10 rebounds. Parker Powers added 13 and Jason Rusten 12.

Jacob Cain led Sidney with 19 points and 11 rebounds.

East Mills 75,
Clarinda Academy 66
East Mills bounced back from a loss two nights earlier to defeat Clarinda Academy 75-66 in Corner Conference boys basketball Thursday.

The Wolverines (3-1 overall, 2-1 in the conference) built a 40-16 halftime lead and held on late for the win.

Keegan Wederquist scored  a career-high 35 points for East Mills. Noah Meyer added 14 and Logan Currin 11.

Kenny Hicks led Clarinda Academy with 22 points.

Fremont-Mills 53,
East Mills 44

MALVERN - Having just seen back-to-back East Mills layups cut its lead from a healthy 10 points to six midway through the fourth quarter, Fremont-Mills didn’t panic.

They started shooting.

A three-pointer by Parker Powers and another three and a layup by Jason Rusten sandwiched around an East Mills three-point pushed the Knights’ lead to 51-39 with 3:34 to go. From there the Wolverines never got closer than nine as Fremont-Mills closed out a key Corner Conference victory before  a reporter-estimated crowd of 300.

“Sometimes you have to be that kid that’s not afraid to shoot,” said Fremont-Mills coach Mike Wood after the game. “I think that’s what happened there. A lot of kids would have pulled back and sat on a lead but we kept attacking the rim. I was proud of the kids because we had a lot of shots that didn’t go in.”

The Knights bolted out to a 16-6 first quarter lead only to see the Wolverines rally to trim the lead to 24-23 on Noah Richter’s three pointer with 1:12 to go in the half. But F-M would counter before intermission with a 4-0 run to take a 28-23 lead into the break.

The Knights pushed their lead to 10 in the third quarter but the Wolverines hung around – thanks mostly to some scrappy defense and key offensive rebounding.

In the fourth, Currin keyed the comeback with a putback and three pointer. Noah Meyer’s rebound and layup made the score 43-36 with 5:12 to go in the game.

That’s when Rusten and the Knights went to work. Rusten, a junior, scored seven of his game-high 20 points in the fourth quarter.

“That’s probably the biggest night he’s had,” Wood said. “He’s always been a great defensive player but offensively that was probably the best he’s ever played.”

Despite some ups-and-downs on the offensive end and being severely out-rebounded, Wood saw his team come out and execute their game plan.

“With this team, we’re all about feeling them out and figuring out what we’re capable of doing and what we’re not capable of doing on any particular night,” Wood said. “We know they have great athletes in Currin and (Keegan) Wederquist. Our job was to figured out where they were going to be in their offensive sets and then minimize the opportunities they had.”

Currin finished with a team-high 17 points and Wederquist pitched in 11 points and 16 rebounds but the pair, who lead East Mills in scoring, combined to shoot just 10-of-27 from the field.

“I think both teams take the mindset that we’re going to be good defensively,” Wood said. “I’m not a big offensive guy. You’ll notice a lot of times Coach (Bret) Weldon in the timeout will be drawing up the offensive plays. My deal is, if you play defense and hustle every night you always have a chance.”