Orioles hit bump in the road; Lose Two of Last Three

Orioles hit bump in the road; Lose Two of Last Three

The Lennox Orioles rolled into West Central on February 11^th with a nice win streak. After a brilliant game from the Orioles they left West Central with a 64-61 win. Lennox had earned an eight game win streak. However Lennox had a tough four days coming up as they faced Tea Area, Madison and Beresford all on the road. This story will tell you all about how those games went.

It started with the annual Pink Out night vs Tea Area. The recent meetings of Lennox vs Tea Area have been nothing short of great. The previous meetings all proved why the Lennox Orioles and the Tea Area Titans were rivals. This year’s February 13^th meeting of Lennox at Tea Area was nothing short of a great game. The only thing that did take away from the greatness of the game was the extremely high number of fouls. However the fouls were evenly called and so this game became a physical, high scoring, and old fashioned basketball brawl between two physical teams. Two players highlighted this game and they were Ethan Freidel and Jacob Hinker. Freidel excelled above a Lennox defense who has been known to not allow players to do what Freidel did on Saturday, which is what makes this more impressive. As it came down to the late minutes, Hinker and the Orioles had a 4 point lead. This quickly disappeared as Ethan Freidel would go five of five from three point land in the final six minutes. This turned the tides and the Titans led 77-69 with 12 seconds left. Hinker brought the ball up the court and was fouled, however Sabers of Tea was given a technical and that gave Hinker four free throws. He made all of them making it 77-73 with 7.8 seconds to go. The Orioles game plan was to hit a three and call timeout. However, Hinker’s three rimmed out and the Orioles never did get a second chance. It was a great game with two great teams that ended 77-73 in favor of the Titans.

Lennox would travel to Madison on Monday, February 15^th to play the Bulldogs and something was off about the Lennox Orioles. The Orioles kept it close as it was 32-21 at half. However the Bulldogs came out shooting. The bad part for the Orioles was that the Bulldogs were shooting and making. Madison scored 24 in the 3^rd and added 17 in the fourth to make their total 73. The Bulldogs offense wasn’t the only deadly part in the second half as the defense held Lennox to only twenty-one second half points. This meant Lennox had fallen 73-42 to the Bulldogs.

The Orioles were coming off of two back to back losses that were both heartbreaking. One loss was a hard fought loss to a rival and the other loss was a blow out. The Orioles came out against the Beresford Watchdogs with a chip on their shoulders. The Orioles came out firing on all pistons. They led 34 to 27 at half but that is when the Orioles turned up the heat. The Orioles offense went off in the third quarter as they scored twenty-three points and now had a 57-39 lead. It was a constant flutter between a twenty point lead and a eighteen point lead for most of the third quarter. The Orioles brought in some backups as the starters were pretty drained from four games in five days. The Orioles lost the fourth quarter as Beresford outscored the Orioles 17 to 10. However Lennox held on to win 67-56. The Orioles were led by Jacob Hinker who had twenty plus points.

The Orioles easily had their toughest streak of games through the past two weeks and to be two wins and two losses through those four games is quite impressive. Now they look to get a win in Dell Rapids on Friday, February 19^th. The Quarriers have had a great season and with guys like Ty Hoglund and Sheldon Simensma who have both had great seasons, the Orioles could be in for a tough night. Join in tomorrow for an article with some answers from an interview with Coach Paul McVey. Tomorrow’s article will also feature a preview of Lennox vs Dell Rapids.

Have a good day and GOOOOOO Orioles!!!