Hurricanes slip by Tigers

The Hayward Hurricanes handed the Northwestern High School basketball team its second defeat of the season Tuesday in a 45-43 loss in Hayward.

Both the Hurricanes and Tigers are now 2-2 in the Heart O’ North Conference. Hayward is 5-2 overall, while Northwestern is 3-2.

“We did not match Hayward’s intensity,” said NHS coach Dave Gustafson. “They played with more desire than we did; they wanted it more.”

In the first quarter, both teams got to the foul line repeatedly. All but four of the 14 points scored in the first six minutes of the game came on free throws.

Hayward was in the one-and-one bonus before the end of the quarter, and the Hurricanes led 10-8 heading into the second.

The Hurricanes began the second quarter with two shots in the paint to build a 14-9 lead and soon after made it 18-11. Northwestern rallied and cut the lead to 18-16 on a coast-to-coast drive by Micah Olson near the five-minute mark, and the first half ended with the Tigers’ Nolan Graff hitting a pair of 3-pointers to tie the game at 24-24.

The two teams remained tied for much of the third and fourth quarters, with NHS building a four-point lead with less than three minutes to play.

Fouls hurt the Tigers in the closing minutes, as Hayward hit a pair of free throws to make it 43-42 and then tied the game at 43-43 on another foul shot with 1:15 to play.

The Tigers ate up almost a minute of time looking for a good shot but missed inside to return the ball to Hayward with 14 seconds left. The Hurricanes set up a play out of a timeout and hit the shot to take the lead, 45-43, with 1.7 seconds to play.

Northwestern called a timeout to try for a desperation shot but couldn’t get a good look.

The Tigers will be back in action Dec. 27-28 at the Christmas Tournament in Rice Lake. Northwestern will play the Rice Lake Warriors at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 27 and will then face either Somerset or Cumberland Dec. 28.

Hayward 10 14 9 12 — 45

Northwestern 8 16 8 11 — 43

Hayward — Joe Stark 14, Jake Luedke 12, Nick Melton 10, Jake Dotterweich 4, Ryan Wisdom 3, Ryan Miley 2.

3-point goals — Stark.

Northwestern — Nolan Graff 16, Dylan Jardine 11, Justin Alexson 9, Matt Hlina 2, Grant Pearson 2, Micah Olson 2, Brayden Bartelt 1.

3-point goals — Graff 2, Alexson.

Tags: sports, prep, tigers, basketball