Photo by Sam Thiel Canby’s Tyler Sayre guards Pipestone Area’s JT Tinklenberg during their game on Saturday. Canby fell to Pipestone Area 72-43.

MARSHALL – The Canby boys basketball team returned from its holiday break looking to get out to a good start to its second half of its schedule against Pipestone Area. Unfortunately for the Lancers, a tight first half quickly unraveled as the Arrows earned a 72-43 victory over Canby Saturday at Southwest Minnesota State University.

Canby coach Zach Traphagen felt his team was able to match Pipestone’s intensity in the first half, but they couldn’t keep it consistent enough in the second half.

“We played good in the first half, thought we matched their intensity and maybe exceeded it a little bit at times. We do the little things that kill us every game; missed layups when we do get open looks, just one or two really bad passes and we don’t get a good look at the basket on offense,” Traphagen said. “Defensively we did a good job spacing it out in the zone and making them work for shots and then they’d get a contest shot and get an offensive rebound. It’s frustrating, but it’s just the first part of the season, hopefully we can make corrections and be better in the second part of the season.”

Pipestone Area was able to jump out to an early lead, gaining an 8-2 advantage before a 3-pointer from Will Varcoe cut it to 8-5 in the game’s opening minutes. Another 3-pointer for the Lancers, this time provided by Riley Kockelman, made it a two-point game but the two teams would then trade points over the next few minutes as the Arrows took a 19-12 lead with 6:30 left in the first half.

Pipestone Area would continue its strong offensive play throughout the rest of the opening half, going on a 12-6 run to take a 31-18 lead with 2:50 to go. Canby got another 3-pointer from Varcoe to cut it to within seven at 31-24 but the Arrows would take an eight-point advantage at the break.

In the second half, Pipestone continued to take advantage of turnovers on Canby’s side of the floor early on, going on an 8-0 run before a 3-point play by the Arrows gave Pipestone a 51-31 lead with 13:20 left.

Pipestone would continue to maintain its double-digit lead throughout the majority of the second half, leading by as much as 26 at 67-41 en route to the 72-43 victory.

Varcoe led the way for the Lancers with 18 points while Kockelman added 12 and Matt Groen had four. Varcoe led in rebounds with five while Kockelman led in assists with six.

Traphagen said defensively, especially in the first half, their key was their improved communication but added they need to continue to get better with it as the season goes on.

“A lot better communication; it still needs to be better but we’ve really struggled with talking on defense and our guys did a lot better job of communicating to start the game. But then kids get tired and their brains shut off and they stop doing that,” Traphagen said. “A couple of things that we need to work on is being bigger and more physical and then just boxing out and securing the rebound. Those are things that we can all improve on.”

Canby will face Lac qui Parle Valley on Friday at 7:15 p.m. Going into the second half of the season, Traphagen said their biggest takeaway is that they competed hard for a half against a solid team and just need to work towards playing a complete game.

“The fact that we competed hard for a half. We had to take a couple of timeouts to try and wake them up, but the fact that we competed with a team that’s a lot bigger than us and are a AA school for a half, that’s a step in the right direction,” Traphagen said. “Now we’ve got to follow that up and compete for the next 18 minutes as well.”

Pipestone Area 72, Canby 43

Canby 27 16 – 43

Pipestone 35 37 – 72

SCORING: Canby (Varcoe 6-10, 2-2 18; Kockelman 3-10, 5-6 12; Groen 1-4, 2-3 4; Thovson 1-2, 0-0 3; Ries 1-2, 1-1 3; Bruns 0-0 1-3 1).

REBOUNDS: Canby 19 (Varcoe 5; Ries 3; Kockelman, Wente 2; Sayre, Millner, Thovson, Groen, Hansen, Maynard, Bruns 1).

ASSISTS: Canby 9 (Kockelman 6; Harding 2; Thovson 1).

STEALS: Canby 10 (Wente 4; Kockelman 3; Sayre, Thovson, Harding 1).

BLOCKS: Canby 3 (Hansen, Bruns, Wente 1).