Thunder Basketball Splits Against Itasca

Jan 20

Dwight Cadwell-NSO

Both the Fond Du Lac men’s and women’s basketball teams were in action on Thursday night in Grand Rapids to play Itasca Community College. The men’s team came away with a victory, while the women’s team fell to the Vikings.

The Thunder and the Vikings men’s teams played to a first half tie of 36-36, but the Thunder utilized balanced scoring down the stretch to come away with the 71-68 win. A huge helper was shooting 45 % from the field Wednesday night, because they gave away a lot in the height advantage. The Vikings used their height advantage to out rebound the Thunder by a 54-36 difference, but the Vikings could only shot 32% from the floor, allowing the Thunder to come away with the three point win.

Travis Huesers led the Thunder in scoring with 19 points on the night, LaDarius Frazier added 15, Greg Gillespie notched 13 points, Dylan Eggen scored 9, Steve Lykes added 8, Chris Handsman finished with 3, Justin Roberts had 2 points, while Harrison Woods and Kevin Lykes both ended with 1 point. Jared Sutherland scored 19 points for Itasca in the loss.

The Fond Du Lac women’s team fell behind early and was unable to gain any ground back, eventually falling to the Vikings by a score of 90-41. Poor shooting and turnovers were very costly as the Thunder lost this one by a total of 49 points. The FDL women only shot 22% from the floor, while committing seventeen more turnovers than Itasca. The Vikings had 18 steals on the night in the Itasca win. The Vikings also scored 39 points off of the Thunder turnovers.

Lisa Muehlberger led the Thunder in scoring with 12 points, Brady Donnahue added 11, Elizabeth McKenzie had 10, Haily Lund scored 4 points, Winona Crazy-Thunder added 3, and Darian Bushey finished with 1 point in the loss. The Vikings had four players finish in double figures on the night: Misa Matetich, Katie McBride, Allie Benham, and Lexi Daniels, all of who contributed sixteen points

Dwight Cadwell can be reached at dwight@northlandsportsonline.com