Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn would like to claim a do-over when it comes to its first quarter against Graettinger-Terril/Ruthven-Ayrshire. The Hawks trailed GTRA 24-8 after eight minutes of play and that went a long way toward determining a winner as the Titans beat HMS 66-55 December 16 at Hartley.
“We came out slow in that first period,” said Hawk head coach Nate Hoaglund.  “Defensively, we were slow to rotate and struggled to deny the ball into the post. We allowed too many offensive rebounds and second chance points in the first quarter. Offensively, I thought we settled for threes early and didn’t attack the rim enough.”
HMS outscored the Titans in two of the final three quarters. “After the first quarter we started to play more as we intended,” noted Hoaglund. “The game was much more competitive from the second quarter on. We just dug too deep of a hole in the first quarter and couldn’t ever get over the hump in the second half. We need to continue to learn how to put four quarters together.”
The Hawks shot 38 percent (19-of-50) from the field compared to 44 percent (28-of-64) for GTRA. HMS went 9-for-26 from long range and 8-for-11 from the free throw line. The Titans connected on seven of 23 trey attempts three of seven free throws.
Isaac Schierholz led the Hawks in scoring with 16 points. Caden Douma hit four of eight three-point shots and finished with 14 points. “I thought Caden had a good night shooting for us,” said Hoaglund. “He continues to get open looks and against GTRA he was able to take advantage of them. We’ve got all the confidence in the world in his shooting abilities so to see a few of them go down was big for us and big for his confidence.”
Alex Billings scored 11 points, grabbed eight rebounds and was active on defense. “I was really pleased with Alex’s game,” said his coach. “He did a tremendous job of fronting the post and being physical with their big. His effort is contagious and gives energy. He was able to capitalize on his scoring opportunities.”
Rounding out the scoring for HMS were Jackson Vogt with eight points and Lawton Schiphoff and Kolby Douma with three apiece. Schierholz supplied eight assists.
GTRA committed six turnovers and the Hawks were guilty of 15. Vogt came away with three steals. Schierholz pulled down 10 rebounds and Caden Douma grabbed six.
GTRA 24 10 14 18 – 66
HMS 8 14 14 19 – 55