Wildcats roll past Beavers

The Blair-Taylor boys basketball team came out hot then broke the game open in the second half.

In the end, the Wildcats matched a season-high with 90 points in a lopsided road win over Augusta last Thursday. That win put B-T at 17-5 overall on the season and 14-4 in Dairyland Conference play behind Alma Center Lincoln (15-4) and Cochrane-Fountain City (18-0). 

B-T hosted Independence/Gilmanton on Monday of this week and plays at Osseo-Fairchild on Thursday. 

The Wildcats were awarded the fifth seed in its Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association bracket and opens tournament play at home against (12) Plum City/Elmwood this coming Tuesday. The winner of that game will play the winner of the game between (13) Greenwood and (4) Loyal next Friday with the highest seed hosting. The regional final, likely at C-FC, will be on Saturday. 

B-T 90 Augusta 53

The Wildcats were on fire early and broke the game open in the second half.

B-T took a 10-point lead early in the first half, but Augusta stuck around and trailed by 10, 40-30, at halftime. Coach Randy Storlie said his team made some halftime adjustments and went on a 10-0 run early in the second half “and never looked back.” 

“We just made a couple of adjustments on our offense to attack their zone better and the guys really did it well,” Storlie said. “We really controlled the contest in the second half and limited our turnovers and we really took the ball hard to the basket.”

B-T put up 50 points in the second half and shot 53 percent from the field in the game while shooting 17-for-23 from the free-throw line. 

Senior Ethan Kniseley scored a career-high 31 points, shooting 12-for-17 from the field and six-for-six from the charity stripe. CJ Dummer added 20 points and Hunter Wagner finished with 10. 

“I am very proud of our effort tonight and so many guys played well,” Storlie said. “It was fun to watch.”

Blair-Taylor (field goals/attempts-free throws/attempts-rebounds-fouls-points) — Kniseley 12/17-6/6-5-3-31 Pettis 1/2-0/0-1-0-3 Johnson 1/2-0/0-0-1-3 Olson 1/2-0/0-0-0-2 Shramek 2/5-2/3-6-0-6 Bernadotte 0/1-0/0-0-1-0 Dummer 8/16-2/4-5-1-20 Wagner 3/7-4/6-9-1-10 Anderson 1/2-0/0-2-0-2 Oldendorf 3/6-1/2-8-1-7 Halverson 2/4-2/2-4-1-6