WACO boys move past HTC

FORT MADISON ? The WACO boys are moving on. The Warriors gritted out a true road win on Monday night, defeating Holy Trinity, 51-48, in their first round district tournament game.

WACO got off to a fast start behind Duncan Pickard, who scored 10 quick points in the first quarter to help the Warriors get off to an early 17-8 lead. Pickard, however, got into foul trouble early, picking up three fouls in the first quarter.

?A lot of hand-checking was called early and it put Duncan in foul trouble,? said head coach Paul Kissell about Pickard?s start to the game. ?Duncan did a nice job with his limited minutes on the floor.?

With Pickard on the bench, HTC was able to cut the Warrior lead to 19-16 after one quarter, but the Warriors were able to stay in front, thanks in part to 10 first-half points by Jackson Roth, and led 33-30 at the break.

The WACO defense stepped up in the third quarter, holding the Crusaders to just six points in the period. During that time, the Warriors were able to stretch their lead to double digits, thanks in part to a Pickard 3-pointer and a 3-point play by Jackson Gerot.

WACO held a 48-36 lead going into the fourth quarter. A defensive struggle kept the Warriors in the lead, 48-37 with four minutes to play, but the Crusaders caught fire late.

HTC cut the lead to single digits late and capitalized on some missed Warrior free throws to give themselves a chance to tie the game late. With 2.4 seconds left, WACO?s lead was down to just three, at 51-48.

?With 2.4 (seconds left), up by three, we weren?t worried about the layup,? Kissell said. ?We wanted to know where (Cory) Hopper was and where (Connor) Conrad was, and just make sure we challenged.?

The final shot went to Hopper, who took a turnaround corner 3-pointer. Jackson Gerot and Gabe Black were able to challenge the shot, which fell off after hitting both backboard and rim.

?We?d get up by six and just couldn?t get a free throw or layup to extend that lead,? said Kissell about the win. ?I give our kids credit ? they hung in there and got the win tonight.?

Roth and Pickard each finished with 13 points to lead the team in scoring. Roth also dished out nine assists.

Gerot had nine points in the win. Black and Bryce Achen each had four. Colten Horak and Jaren Unternahrer scored three apiece and Justyn Chalupa had two.

WACO advances on to the second round, at Notre Dame High School in Burlington, where they will take on Danville. That game will be played on Thursday, Feb. 18, at 6:30 p.m.

Winfield-Mt. Union and Notre Dame will play right after, and the two winners advance to the district semifinal on Tuesday, Feb. 23, at

Lone Tree.