Tigercats suffer league loss to Rosalia

Fatigue and fouls proved detrimental to the Tigercats in LaCrosse on Friday night when they faced defeat against Rosalia, 60-56. The Tigercats controlled the tempo throughout the first half, but a strong third quarter by Rosalia posed problems for the Tigercats to be able to seal the win.

The Tigercats got out to an early lead in the first quarter, outscoring Rosalia 15-9 and maintained a one-point advantage going into halftime. The Tigercats’ second half performance was littered with fouls, unforced errors, mental mistakes and fatigue, and Rosalia exposed the weaknesses to secure the win.

Under the senior leadership of Joey Guske, the Tigercats narrowed the gap in the final minutes of the game after Rosalia went up by eight points in the fourth quarter. Guske went nine for nine from the foul line and ended the night with 33 points.

Throughout the game, the Tigercats battled to try to contain the Spartan’s leading scorer, Craig Nelson. The Tigercats adjusted defensive strategies during the game based around preventing Nelson from shooting, but Nelson still managed to put up 32 points against the Tigercat defense.

Head coach Mike Stubbs explained the Tigercats’ goal going into the game was to isolate and contain Nelson. The effort started with defensive pressure from Stephen Erickson in a box and one defense, but Erickson racked up fouls throughout the game causing the containment of Nelson to become a team effort.

“I was really proud of our boys for their effort,” Stubbs said. “My hope was that if we could hold Nelson to 25, or under, we had a good chance of winning. We still should have won the game; we left too many points on the floor that were convertible type opportunities.”

“We need to work through the mental and physical fatigue and still stay sharp,” Stubbs added.

The Tigercats struggled getting shots to fall throughout the game, but 15 points put up by Guske in the fourth quarter helped.

The team played solid defense throughout the evening and rebounded well at both ends of the court.

Riley Roberts ended the night with nine points. Darcy Stamper had five points and Graham BeDell had four points. Erickson, Jason Wigen and Chance Rice all had two points each in the game.

The Tigercats move on to play Colton on Friday night in LaCrosse and Stubbs said the team is working hard in practice to strengthen their defense in order to limit six-foot-seven athlete Dalton Patchen’s chances at the hoop. The Tigercats do not have an athlete to go one-on-one with Patchen, and Stubbs said it will be a team effort to contain the Colton team.

The Tigercats go on the road on Saturday to face Garfield-Palouse in Palouse.