Wildcats stumble against Pirates, Norse

The Blair-Taylor boys basketball team struggled against two of the top teams in the Dairyland Conference last week.

The Wildcats couldn’t stop the bleeding on a pair of big runs by Cochrane-Fountain City in a 67-50 loss on Monday of last week. On Thursday, Whitehall took control in the second half of an 89-71 win (see story elsewhere in Sports).

The losses put the Wildcats at 7-9 overall and 7-6 in Dairyland Conference play. The team hosted Alma Center Lincoln on Tuesday and will play at Eau Claire Immanuel Lutheran on Thursday and Eleva-Strum on Friday. Next week, B-T will have a couple of home games welcoming Alma/Pepin on Tuesday and Independence/Gilmanton on Friday. 

C-FC 67 Blair-Taylor 50

A 16-2 run early put the Pirates in control and a 14-2 run late put the game away. 

The Wildcats had a one-point lead in the opening minutes, but C-FC connected on a three-pointer to start a long run. The Pirates controlled both ends of the floor to take a 23-10 lead with about six minutes remaining in the first half. 

B-T kept battling. DJ Dummer scored five straight B-T points to cut the C-FC advantage to eight. Then Brady Thompson got in on the action, scoring a basket followed by a three-pointer to make the score 25-20.

After C-FC responded with a three, Thompson made another shot then Kyle Jahr connected from outside to bring the Wildcats within four. C-FC took a 31-25 lead into halftime.

B-T was even closer in the second half, trailing 33-31, but C-FC scored seven straight. The Wildcats surged again to pull within four at 45-41, but the Pirates put the game away with a 14-2 run. 

Thompson and Collin Johnson both scored 12 for B-T, while Dummer added 11.

B-T (field goals/attempts-free throws/attempts-rebounds-fouls-points) — Kruse 1/1-0/0-0-0-2 Dummer 3/22-5/6-6-0-11 Johnson 4/15-3/6-3-5-12 Olson 1/6-2/2-6-1-5 Dahl 0/1-0/0-1-0-0 Anderson 0/0-0/0-1-2-0 Jahr 2/4-1/2-1-0-7 Thompson 5/12-1/1-6-2-12 Beck 0/1-0/0-0-2-0 Halverson 0/3-1/2-6-2-1