Noxon basketball teams split games at Ronan tourney

The Noxon boys and girls basketball teams each split their respective games at last weekend’s Ronan tip-off tournament.

Noxon boys basketball coach Bart Halflich knew his team was going to have growing pains with such a youthful roster entering the 2019-20 season.

He was correct as the Red Devils struggled at times in a season-opening loss to Darby, 56-41, Friday in the Ronan tip-off tournament.

“The one thing with my team, this year, is that we’re young so I kind of expected us to come up here and struggle to find our identity. I got one player, Rylan Weltz, he is really my only varsity player,” Halflich said. “These other kids have basically come up from JV. We lost a lot of seniors last year. I’m not really worried at all about what happened today because I know we are going to grow as a team as the season goes along and I think they will start coming together.

“It comes down to plain experience. Last year we graduated five varsity players and lost two players to transfers.”

Senior big man Rylan Weltz had a great performance, scoring 31 points. His basket with 2:10 left in the third quarter cut Darby’s lead to seven points, 35-28. A 3-pointer with 31 seconds left in the frame made it a six-point game at 37-31.

But Darby responded the last five points of the third and the first four of the fourth quarter to build its lead back to 15 points, 46-31, and effectively end the game.

But Saturday, the Red Devils made it into the win column with a 49-34 rout of Victor. Noxon led 35-10 after three quarters.

Michael Antonich led the Red Devils with 18 points and Weltz scored 16. Brody Hill, who scored six against Darby, had five points against Victor.

Coach Halflich talked about some of his players that he expects more contributions from in the future.

“Obviously Rylan Weltz is a big player, he’s a force. He plays hard, shoots well. Brody Hill,

he got some varsity time playing last year, I’ve seen some things out of him,” Halflich said. “Michael Antonich, he’s another guy who was a JV player last year, but he’s a big strong kid, I’ve seen good things out of him.

“There are a couple other kids we will just keep our eye on, like Derik Christianson that just need playing

time that they are lacking right now.”

In the girls games, Darby edged the Lady Red Devils 44-39.

Avery Burgess led Noxon with 28 points.

Saturday, Noxon bounced back with a rout of Victor, 52-19. Chelsea Vohs led the way with 14 points and Burgess scored 13.

Valley Press reporter John Dowd contributed to this report