Photo by Jake Przytarski Wabasso’s Tristan Kuehn shoots a jumper during their game against Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart on Saturday. The Rabbits fell to the Mustangs 56-46.

WABASSO – A 14-point first half showing doomed the Wabasso boys basketball team as a second-half surge was not enough to overcome the slow start in their 56-46 loss to Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart on Saturday. In spite of the loss, Wabasso coach Josh Hadley is proud of his team for continuing to fight in the second half in the face of a large deficit.

“We started pretty slow in the first half, dug ourselves quite a bit of a hole,” said Hadley. “Anytime you get down double-digits like that it’s tough to come back in a game. The best thing that I take away from (Saturday) is our kids fought to the very end they did not give up. We could’ve folded, buried it and gave up at half. They came out and battled really hard the second. Credit to BLHS, they handled the pressure (and) they stuck it out and got the win.”

Trading baskets to open up the game, the Rabbits shooting troubles would begin to rear their ugly head with the team down 13-8 and unable to keep pace with the Mustangs into halftime. Outscored 14-6 the rest of the way through, Wabasso needed to find a way to create points fast when play commenced in the second half down 27-14. In response, Hadley implemented a full-court press and the momentum began to shift as a result.

“We had a nice run to start,” said Hadley. “I think we got it to within four after that terrible stretch in the first half. We put on a press and just tried to speed the game up a little bit, hoping they would take some quick shots, a couple of turnovers here and there. We finally shot a little bit better in the second half, I don’t think we shot it very well in the first at all.”

Opening up the scoring with a 3-pointer by Colby Wall to make it 27-17, the Rabbits slowly began to whittle away at the deficit and cut the Mustangs’ lead to within five to make it 38-33 thanks to a 3-point shot from Brock Rohlik.

The Rabbits continued to cash on in their offensive possessions and brought the game to within four at 44-40, before the Mustangs took control of the game again by knocking down a 3-pointer and moving the ball inside for an easy bucket to push their lead back to nine points.

Unable to claw their way back in the waning moments of the game, the Rabbits fell to the Mustangs by a final score of 56-46.

With the loss, the Rabbits move to 1-4 on the young season and will look to bounce back in their next game against Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s on Tuesday at their home gym. Prior to their meeting with the Knights, Hadley will look to shore up the team’s defense and rebounding.

“We still have a lot of things to fix,” said Hadley. “Back side help, on-ball pressure, but I thought the adjustments we made at halftime were good. We’re still young, we’re learning the varsity game. As long as we’re getting better each day I’m happy with that. (We also need to work on) rebounding, we got killed on the boards that was a big difference also.”