Horsemen corraled by Trojans

Horsemen senior Taylor Firestone second guesses his shot attempt after a Trojan defender goes airborne on Saturday night.

Senior guard Jeff Revier scans the Trojan defense for a weakspot during a 38-57 Horsemen loss versus Troy.

by Mike Miller
| February 2, 2011 3:02 PM

Senior guard Jeff Revier scans the Trojan defense for a weakspot during a 38-57 Horsemen loss versus Troy.

The Horsemen are still looking for their first District 7-B win after a 40-54 loss against Troy on Saturday. Plains is now 0-6 conf., 4-10 ovr. with four conference games left on their schedule before the district tournament.

The opportunistic Trojans took advantage of early turnovers by Plains, holding the Horsemen to just three first-half field goals, outscoring them, 11-24 over that span.

“We were taking shots in the first half that I didn’t want them to take,” Horsemen head coach Cory Ovitt said. “In the second half we did a lot better job running our offense, so we got a lot better looks at the basket.”

Better shot selection mean tmore points for the Horsemen as they tallied 29 second half points, more than doubling their first half output. After the break, Plains nearly played even with Troy, who scored 30 points.

Ryan Rayson scored a season-high 17 points to lead the Trojans (5-2, 9-4) as they completed their regular season sweep over Plains.

Seniors Taylor Firestone and Wade Bache each netted eight points to lead Plains. Tanner Ostrum added six points, Travis Lilja five, Brandyn Smith four and Jeff Revier four, Andrew Baker three and Robert Earhart two in the loss.

Although he did not play in the contest, injured guard Carson Lilja gave the Horsemen something to look forward to during the loss. Lilja dressed with the team for the first time since injuring his ankle earlier this season.

“He’s still not 100 percent, but he gets better everyday,” Ovitt said. Ovitt expects Lilja to play this weekend as the Trotters travel to Bigfork on Friday and Eureka on Saturday.

Lilja figures to be inserted back into the starting lineup, but that won’t be anything new for Ovitt who has been experimenting with his starting five all season.

Recent changes including starting Bache and Earhart during the last two games.

“Bache has really been giving me good minutes when he’s been in there the last three or four games and he’s been working really hard in practice,” Ovitt said. “Robert has been giving me pretty good minutes too”

“It could change day to day, you never know who I’m going to start,” he added.