Fourth Quarter Rally Comes Up Short
After trailing by roughly 10 points for most of the contest, the Napoleon/Gackle-Streeter boys’ basketball team put together a fourth quarter rally and pulled to within one, late in the game before losing 51-53 to New Salem-Almont.
In the season opener at Napoleon last Fri., Dec. 12, NGS junior Brenden Zenker had the ball raining from downtown as he cashed in on 7 triples of his 27 points to lead the Imperials. Imperial head coach Logan Klitzke and his squad got off to a slow start as they trailed 12-26 after the first eight minutes and continued to claw their way back into the contest. The Imperials were led by the hot hand of Zenker, who had two triples in the first, second and fourth quarters respectively along with one in the third, all in attempts to lift the Imperials back into the game.
An ever-strong defensive pressure by NGS caused the Holsteins to turn the ball over on traveling calls numerous times on the night. The second stanza had Zenker drain back-to-back treys as NGS pulled to within 12, at the 5:17 mark of the second quarter. The half closed with NGS cutting into the lead ever so slightly, trailing 25-37 at intermission.
The third quarter had the scoring slowed for both squads, as the Imperials. . .