On Friday Jan. 22 the freshmen boy’s traveled to Clarinda to take on the Cardinals. They played one of their most memorable games of the season.

In the first quarter the Trojans came out weak and were down 14-7 at the end of the first quarter. They seemed to have underestimated Clarinda and were suddenly playing from behind early in the contest.

Head freshmen coach Brandon Krause said, “Clarinda just play harder than we did and beat us in every phase of the game in the first quarter”.

In the second quarter the Trojans finally had settled into the game and started getting into a flow on both ends of the floor. They Trojans became more aggressive toward the basketball and began to limit the Cardinals to only one shot per possession.

Krause said, “Logan Reilly pretty much put the team on his back scoring a majority of the team’s points. Logan caught fire from beyond the arch and starting hitting key shots. I thought he was a great leader during this part of the game”.

At the end of the half Clarinda held a slight lead 26-24, but the Trojans had some momentum going into the second half.

Early into the third quarter the score was 33-29 in favor of the Cardinals, but both teams were playing good basketball and playing with even more intensity.

Krause said, “Our team defense was much improved the second half. We had great ball movement opening up driving lanes”.

As a basketball game is played out, a team sometimes gets in foul trouble. For the Trojans they had a few players have that happen to them as freshman Korben Peterson stepped up and got some quality minutes playing some good fundamental basketball.

In the fourth quarter the Trojans had got locked in and were determined to win this game, they had all the confidence in their coach to put them in the right place to succeed.

Krause said, “The best word that comes to mind about the freshmen was “FIGHT”. They continued to battle in a knock down drag out fight. The kids put a lot of emotion into this quarter.” The fighting paid off and at the end of the fourth quarter, the score read 41-41.

During overtime, it was uneventful until the last minute of when Clarinda scored off of a 1 and 1 foul situation. The Trojans had a chance to take the lead late with free throws and easy shots, but also had to foul, letting Clarinda shoot free throws.

Ultimately, the Trojans fell, 48-46, finishing a hard fought game.

“The kids battled I can’t take that away from them, but we need to learn how important free throws and staying focused down the stretch is. I’m really proud of these young men, but we have to learn to put a full 32 minutes together become successful in games like these,” Krause said.