By Skip Hunter –

One night after the ladies’s teams squared off, the SWC Eagles and the RTR Knights boys’ teams squared off also at SWC. The girls entertained the crowd well, and the boys’ game would be good as well. It was. The Eagles jumped out to an early lead, but the Knights roared back to only trail by 2 at half time. In the second half, whenever the Eagles had a comfortable lead, the Knights, behind the hot shooting Aiden Wichman, would close the gap. However, the Eagles stayed the course and won, 83-72.

The Eagles won the tip and Carter Van Hulzen set up down low where Cody Van’t Hof found him for 2 points. RTR tied the score, but Van Hulzen found Van’t Hof open in the corner for a bucket. The two reversed roles the next time down the court, and the Eagles were ahead 8-2. SWC scored twice more with Micah Schaap finding Van Hulzen for an inbounds play bucket; Schaap then scored on a drive to make the score 12-2 prompting a Knight time-out.

After RTR scored twice, Dawson Rieck was fouled while shooting and made both free throws. Schaap scored another deuce and while attempting another was fouled and made 1 of 2 free throws. The visitors attempted to keep pace with a bucket, but SWC scored on two Schaap passes to Jarett Kuipers and a Cole Walhof drive to the hoop for 2 more points. The Knights cut the lead to 10 before Schaap made one of his patented drives inside for 2 points to make the score 25-14 with 9:03 showing on the clock.

The Eagles scored often from two places during the game. Place 1 was down low usually in the person of Van Hulzen. Place 2 was at the foul line as they shot an excellent 20 for 25 at the stripe. Van’t Hof scored next for SWC with both ends of a one-and-one situation. RTR scored the next 6 points before Van Hulzen tipped back a missed shot. Rieck made 2 free throws, and Van’t Hof dropped the ball in to Van Hulzen for 2 more.

Schaap and Rieck each picked up their second fouls and retired to the bench for the rest of the half. RTR began to make its move. Nine unanswered points tied the score at 33. Walhof made a pair of charity tosses to unknot the score, but the Knights tied it right back up. Kuipers scored the last 2 points with a putback of his own missed shot to make the score 37-35 at the break.