The Minnewaska boys basketball team was tied at halftime with BOLD, Thursday night, but the Warriors outscored the Lakers 35-25 in the second half to earn a 69-59 victory.  Two nights earlier, the Lakers fell to a strong Melrose team, 71-49.

The Lakers, who will get another shot at home against BOLD, Jan. 26, were set to play at BBE, Monday, Jan. 16 before coming home again for a game against Barnesville, Thursday, Jan. 19 and versus Benson, Friday, Jan. 20.

Minnewaska Area dropped to 1-11 overall and 0-6 in the conference following the latest two losses.

Melrose 71, Minnewaska 49

The Lakers stayed with the Dutchmen for the first half before Melrose ran off with a 71-49 home win over Minnewaska Area last Tuesday night.

The Lakers, who fell to 1-10 overall and 0-5 in the WCC, trailed only 39-27 at halftime before being held to just 22 points in the second half.

Minnewaska shot 38 percent from the field (19-for-50), including 7-of-25 from three-point range.  The Lakers were also 4-of-6 from the free-throw line.

“We’ve put together some really good stretches in games this year, but have only put a full game together a handful of times,” coach Hunter Salathe said.  “The HLWW game was one of those where we competed the entire game and didn’t back down before coming up a little short in the end.

“We are just going to keep working on finding the right lineup of players to help keep the game going in a positive direction for us and not have lapses where we give up a big run since those are difficult for us to dig ourselves out of.”

The Lakers had two players score in double figures as Hunter Kloos had 14 points, four rebounds, three assists and two steals and Alex Panitzke added 12 points and four assists.  Kloos was 5-of-9 from the field and Panitzke was 4-of-9.

PJ Johnson chipped in with nine points, two assists and two boards, while Tenzin Dahl had seven points and two rebounds, Dylan Alexander had four points, two assists and five rebounds and sophomore Connor Frey, seeing his first varsity action, had three points, hitting 1-of-2 three-pointers.

Dahl had all seven of his points in the first half, while Panitzke had nine and Johnson seven in the opening stanza, while Kloos had 11 of his 13 points in the second half.

Melrose, which improved to 6-1 overall, had four players score in double figures, including Gor Ruey, who had a game-high 18 points.

BOLD 69, Waska 59

Three Lakers scored in double figures, but it still wasn’t enough as BOLD outscored Minnewaska Area 35-25 in the second half to earn a 69-59 victory, Thursday night at BOLD.

Hunter Kloos and Tenzin Dahl had 17 points each to lead the Lakers with Kloos adding two assists and six rebounds and Dahl adding seven boards and four steals.

Alex Panitzke also scored in double figures with 14 points, three assists, four rebounds and two steals, but no other Laker had more than five.

BOLD meanwhile, had five players score in double figures.  Ryan King led the Warriors with 19 points, nine rebounds and eight assists, while Andrew Meyers added a double-double of 16 points and 10 boards.  King had 13 of his points in the second half.

The Lakers had a good night shooting, ending the game 23-for-50 from the field, or 46 percent.  Minnewaska was also 8-of-25 from three-point range and 5-of-8 from the line.

Dylan Alexander had a good all-around game for the Lakers with five points, three assists and a team-high nine boards, while PJ Johnson had four points, eight assists and four rebounds and Blake Andreas had two points and two assists.

“Dylan and PJ have been playing hard this year and making a big impact on the floor,” coach Salathe said.  “Dylan has done a great job handling pressure defense and his defensive intensity and rebounding for his size is awesome.  PJ has also been solid on the floor for us and is such a great leader on and off the court.”

•  In the B-squad game, the Lakers came away with a 52-33 win as freshmen Marc Gruber led the way with 20 points, hitting three 3-pointers.  Sophomore Levi Johnson had a good all-around game with six points, four rebounds and five assists as the B-squad team improved to 7-5 after starting out the season 0-3.

at Melrose 71, Waska 49

Minnewaska (1-10) 27 22 — 49

Melrose 39 32 — 71

WASKA stats: 19-50 FG (7-25 3pt); 4-6 FT; 14 assists; 16 rebounds; 6 steal; 9 fouls; 14 turnovers. . . Scoring:  Hunter Kloos 14, Alex Panitzke 12, PJ Johnson 9, Tenzin Dahl 7, Dylan Alexander 4, Connor Frey 3 . . . Rebounding:  Alexander 5, Kloos 4, Johnson 2, Dahl 2 . . . Assists:  Panitzke 4, Kloos 3, Blake Andreas 2, Johnson 2, Alexander 2. . . Steals:  Kloos 2, four others with 1

MEL stats:  Scoring:  Gor Ruey 18, Connor Engelmeyer 16, Devin Orbeck 13, Connor Anderson 10 . . . Other stats NA

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at BOLD 69, Waska 59

Minnewaska (1-11) 34 25 — 59

BOLD 34 35 — 69

WASKA stats:  23-50 FG (8-25 3pt); 5-8 FT; 19 assists; 32 rebounds; 9 steals; 16 fouls; 26 turnovers . . . Scoring:   Hunter Kloos 17, Tenzin Dahl 17, Alex Panitzke 14, Dylan Alexander 5, PJ Johnson 4, Blake Andreas 2 . . . Rebounding:  Alexander 9, Dahl 7, Kloos 6, Johnson 4, Panitzke 4 . . Assists:  Johnson 8, Panitzke 3, Alexander 3, Kloos 2, Andreas 2 . . . Steals:  Dahl 4, Panitzke 2

BOLD stats:   Scoring:   Ryan King 19, Andrew Meyers 16, Jack Gross 11, Brayden Gass 10, Zane Boen 10 . . . Reb:  Meyers 10, King 9 . . . Other stats not available

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