This week, the Orono boys basketball team had three conference games: Tuesday Jan. 28 at Mound-Westonka, Thursday Jan. 30 against Holy Family and Saturday Feb. 1 against Delano.
The week began well for the Spartans as they dominated the White Hawks. The final score was 76-48 in favor of the Spartans, who led a majority of the game including at halftime, with a score of 36-25. Starters of the game for the Spartans were juniors Ellis Hammer, Cole Hennings and Ethan Larson and seniors Chandler Perry and Andy TenEyck.
11 Spartans scored against the White Hawks. Perry was the leading scorer of the night with 20 points. He was followed by Hennings and sophomore Sam Sustacek who each brought in ten points.
On Thursday night the Spartans went up against the number one ranked team in the Wright County Conference, Holy Family. This game was closer than the Tuesday game but the Spartans came ready to play.
Head coach Barry Wohler kept the same five starters as the previous game. The Spartans led at halftime by two points but pulled away during the second half to finish the game with a ten point lead. The final score was 69-59.
In the second half, the Spartans faced foul trouble. Larson fouled out while Hammer, Sustacek and senior Ben Turnham played much of the second half with four fouls. For the offense, Hennings led the game scoring 19 points followed by Sustacek who had 12 points of his own. Perry and Larson followed close behind with 11 points each.
On Saturday Feb. 1 the Spartans faced conference and section rival, Delano. Wohler kept the same five starters as the other games this week. The first half of this game was back and forth with many lead changes.
At half time the Spartans were down 23-21, which was the first time the Spartans were down at halftime in a few games. As the second half rolled around the Spartans began to pull away. They held Delano to only 20 second half points.
Hennings led the game once again scoring 21 points before fouling out of the game. Perry followed with 11 points and Hammer followed with six points. The final score was 57-43 in favor of the Spartans which earned them another conference win. This brought their conference record to 8-2 and their overall record to 14-7.
