Hot Springs hoopers sputter heading into district tourney

With the regular season now in the rear-view mirror for the Hot Springs boys’ and girls’ basketball teams, the focus becomes this weekend’s (Feb 20-22) Western 13C District tournament in Frenchtown.

And they are both no doubt hoping to keep the focus going forward after a tough pair of games for each team this past weekend. 

The Hot Springs girls opened the final week of the regular season with a 47-27 conference road loss to Drummond, then followed that with a defeat at the hands of Lincoln, 54-41, in Hot Springs Saturday night. 

The boys fared no better, falling to Drummond 47-41, then being ambushed by league-leading Lincoln, 77-48 on the road Saturday evening. 

The Lady Heat were shut out in the first quarter by Drummond, 8-0 Friday night.  They rallied to outscore the home team 14-11 in the second quarter, making it 19-14 Drummond at the half. 

Drummond outscored Hot Springs 10-6 in the third quarter, giving them a 29-20 lead with one quarter to go.  The Lady Trojans then held Hot Springs to seven fourth quarter points tallying 18 of their own to seal the conference win. 

Junior guard Kara Christensen led Hot Springs with 10 points, while Lilia Sapanel added eight for the Lady Heat. 

Saturday evening the Heat traveled to Lincoln for a game against conference co-leader Lincoln, which came into the game with a 15-2 overall record, 10-1 in conference play. 

The two teams traded buckets in the first quarter before Lincoln established a two-point, 13-11 lead at the conclusion of the quarter. 

The Lady Lynx added five points to their lead during the second quarter, giving them a 26-19 halftime advantage. 

In the third quarter, starting forward Sapanel went down with an ankle injury during the fourth quarter as Lincoln surged to a 43-28 lead heading into the fourth quarter. 

Christensen once again led Hot Springs with 10 points, while Mackenzie Johnson scored nine and guard Callie Cano added eight, including two three-pointers, for Hot Springs. 

Jordyn Zarske and Kaitlyn Brown scored 13 each to lead Lincoln. 

Hot Springs kept battling, as they have all season, and trimmed one point off the Lincoln lead in the fourth quarter but it was not enough to overtake the hosts. 

Lincoln improved to 16-2 overall and 11-1 in conference play with the win, while Hot Springs dropped to 11-7 overall and 6-4 in Western 13C play. 

Both schools’ boys' and girls’ teams next head to the district tournament this coming weekend in Frenchtown. 

The Hot Springs boys opened their final week of the regular season with a hard-fought loss to Drummond, which stands at 7-3 in league play and 7-9 overall. 

Drummond used it height advantage to establish a 12-10 lead after one quarter of play, then added two points to their lead in the second quarter to take a 21-17 halftime lead. 

The third quarter was another hotly contested eight minutes, with Heat post Nick McAllister hitting four of five free throws as part of his 7-10 night at the charity stripe.  He finished with a team high 17 points. 

The two teams scored 16 points each in the fourth quarter, but Hot Springs could not overcome the early Drummond lead. 

Michael Jame led Drummond with 16 points. 

Saturday night Hot Springs traveled to Lincoln, where they fell behind 15-9 after the first eight minutes of play. 

Lincoln then got nine points from guard Dylan Jakushak in the third quarter and eight from forward Roegun Dietz as they increased their lead to 37-20. 

The Riddle brothers added 15 points to the Lincoln total in the third quarter, with Kayden Riddle adding eight and Teegan Riddle chipping in seven as the Lynx built a 62-36 lead heading into the final quarter. 

Lincoln added three more points to their lead in the final eight minutes of play to complete the big win. 

Jakushak led a quartet of double-figure scorers for Lincoln with 19 points, while Teegan Riddle added 18, and Dietz and Kayden Riddle had 16 points each. 

Weston Slonaker paced Hot Springs with 14 points.  The Heat also got 11 from sophomore forward Ben Aldridge. 

The win lifted the Lincoln boys to 16-2 on the year and 10-1 in 13C play, while Hot Springs fell to 6-12 overall and 5-6 in league games.