Warriors fall to New Athens 67-55
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The Steeleville Warriors basketball team lost their second conference game of the year to New Athens 67-55 on January 30. The Warriors are now 3-2 in conference play and trail first place Lebanon and second place New Athens. The Warriors have 5 conference games left including both Lebanon and New Athens at home. In the New Athens game the Warriors fell behind early and could never quite make up the deficit. The Warriors shot well from 3-point range (6-13), but struggled from 2-point range making only 11 of 36 shots for 31%.
The Warriors never led in the game. After winning the opening tip the Warriors turned the ball over. New Athens scored first when Vince Kiefer scored inside and was fouled. He made the free throw for a 3-0 lead. Jason Becker scored the Warriors first points when he sank 1 of 2 free throws. Ryan White hit a 10 footer giving New Athens a 5-1 lead, but Becker answered by hitting a three-pointer from the right wing cutting the lead to 5-4. Unfortunately for the Warriors the offense scored only 3 more points the rest of the first quarter while New Athens dropped in 12 for a 17-7 lead. The first four minutes of the second quarter saw Warrior Josh Diercks ignite a comeback drawing them within 5 at 24-19. Diercks hit two three-pointers and a two pointer during a 12 to 7 Warrior run. Peter Zobel and Andrew Pokrzywinski drove to the basket for scores during the comeback.
New Athens then ran off 8 straight points widening the lead to 32-19. Zobel then split a pair of free throws and Colin Smith hit two before a late New Athens basket brought the score to 34-22 at halftime. The two teams traded points throughout the third period. With 1:15 to go New Athens got two free throws from Ben Junge building a 15 point lead. The Warriors ended the quarter on a strong note getting 3 point baskets from Torrey Gerberding and Diercks with under a minute to go and pulling the Warriors to within 50-41.
The Warriors pulled within 7 early in the fourth quarter when Pokrzywinski scored and was fouled. He made the free throw pulling the Warriors within 51-44. The score was 59-51 with 4 minutes to play when New Athens Junge scored inside and was fouled. Junge sank the free throw and the Warriors trailed by11. The Warriors never got closer than 10 the rest of the way despite the fact that New Athens missed 7 straight free throws. The Warriors scored only 4 points in the last 3:50 of the game. Pokrzywinski hit 1 of 2 free throws and Gerberding hit a three-pointer with 30 seconds left.
Andrew Pokrzywinski scored 12 points and had 4 assists for the Warriors. Josh Diercks put in 11 points and Jason Becker scored 11 and had 5 rebounds. Peter Zobel dropped in 8 and pulled down 6 boards, Colin Smith and Torrey Gerberding each scored 6, and Calen Lalis had 1 point. New Athens was led in scoring by Ben Junge with 24 including 9 of his teams 17 points in the fourth quarter. Ryan White scored 18 for New Athens.
In the JV contest the Warriors exploded out of the locker room grabbing a 15-2 first quarter lead. New Athens regrouped during the break between quarters and stormed right back scoring the first 14 points of the second quarter. The first half ended with New Athens holding a 21-19 lead. The third quarter was the Warriors as they retook the lead 39-35 when the horn sounded. The fourth quarter saw the Warriors leading 41-40 when three different New Athens players knocked down three point shots for a 49-41 advantage. The Warriors couldn't recover from the long distance onslaught losing 60-47.
Nick Potter led the JV team with 17 points and Coire Reel added 11. Dustin Pim scored 8, Jeremy Wilson had 5, Keith Hamilton added 4, and Torrey Gerberding put in 2. New Athens was led by Adam Ingles with 27 and Chance Wacker with 112.