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Washington Evening Journal
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Raiders battle to the end
Weisskopf, Heitman score in double figures
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
MARION — The Williamsburg boys’ basketball team lost another close one Friday night, 56-50, in a WaMaC cross-divisional matchup against Marion.
It’s been a process with a lot of growing curves for a team that returned little production from last year’s State-tournament team.
The player who had the most minutes on last year’s team, Grant Hocker, has been out with an injury.
The good news?
Hocker will be back in a few weeks, and the Raiders have showed growth and are close to finally flipping the script in some close losses.
“It’s been a whole learning process for our juniors and some of our sophomores on how to play at the WaMaC level,” Williamsburg coach Brad Knoop said.
“We’ve battled and lost a couple close ones, but the effort is there. We just have lapses defensively and offensively.
“Once we kind of figure that out, we’ll be much better,” Knoop said.
After a Dylan Weisskopf jumper to start the game, the Wolves went on a 7-0 run.
The Raiders responded with five straight from Braysen Doehrmann, and the Wolves led 14-11 after one.
The second quarter began with the teams trading baskets before the Wolves’ Mason Wagner hit a three to put the Wolves up 24-18.
Then Austin Goodrich hit a three, and a Wagner putback increased the lead to nine.
The Raiders closed the quarter hitting five from the free-throw line for a 29-23 halftime score.
The beginning of the third quarter was all Wolves.
The three biggest keys to Wolves eventual victory were all on display: aggressive defense, three-point shooting and offensive rebounds.
The Raiders turned the ball over on four straight possessions, and the Wolves scored off each one.
After three layups off steals and several offensive rebounds, Weisskopf ended the run with a three.
Jaryn Griffith hit a three in response to make the score 38-26.
A Rayce Heitman steal and basket cut the lead to eight.
The Wolves led 44-34 heading into the fourth.
The Raiders would not go away without a fight, but both times the Raiders found some momentum, the Wolves hit from three-point range.
Heitman grabbed another steal and score, and Wolves leading scorer Austin Goodrich hit from deep.
Griffin Becker scored on a post move from the Raiders to make the score 47-38.
Griffith hit another three as the score hit 52-42.
Weisskopf knocked in a three after a few defensive stops, and the Raiders were down just four late in the fourth.
The Raiders scored one more time and came up just short in the comeback attempt.
“There’s just some growing pains, but I told them we’re so close,” Knoop said. “We’re getting some great things out of different players, and we just have to put it all together.”
The Wolves’ Goodrich led all scorers with 20 on the night.
Weisskopf had 15 for the Raiders, and Heitman also hit double figures with 10.
Doehrmann added nine, and Colin Reed six.
“We got to learn through failure, but we got some winnable games coming up,” said Knoop.
