The Greene County Ram basketball teams both lost to the Roland-Story Norsemen in Story City Friday night. The girls lost 54-48 in the first game of the double header, and the boys followed with a 73-62 loss. In both games, the Rams lead scorers were held well below their season averages, and R-S scored above their season averages.
Senior Kayla Mobley went into the game averaging 16 points a game. She was scoreless in the first half, and scored eight points for the game, all of them in the third quarter. Stacy Mears has often been the Rams’ second leading scorer. She scored only six points for the entire game, sinking two 3-point shots in the fourth quarter.
The Rams scored first and played even-up ball in the first quarter but the Norsemen started a 10-point run to break away from a 7-7 tie. Score after one quarter was 17-11 for the Norsemen. R-S stretched the lead to 25-13 early in the second quarter when the Rams started a nine point run of their own to bring the score to 25-22. Score at the half was 28-24.
With Mobley hitting the boards in the third quarter the Rams tied the score and went ahead 30-28 after just more than a minute of play. At the end of the quarter the Rams were down by only three points, 37-34, but they struggled with ball handling in the fourth quarter and R-S took advantage. Unofficially, the Rams had six turnovers in the first three quarters, and another seven turnovers in the fourth quarter. Despite that, the score was 51-48 before the Norsemen scored the final three points to make the final margin six points, 54-48. The Norsemen had averaged46 points per game while the Rams averaged 45.5 points.
Marissa Promes and Hannah Onken each scored 10 points. Tressa Rasmussen scored nine and Jolee Wessling scored seven.
In the boys game, the taller R-S team effectively shut down Ram sophomore Trey Tucker. Tucker went into the game the leading scorer in Class 3A, averaging 27 points per game. He scored only 10 points Friday night. It wasn’t that his shooting was off, but the Norse defense gave him few opportunities to shoot. He scored six points in the first quarter and two in the second and third quarters. The Rams were at the foul line only five times during the game, and it wasn’t Tucker shooting any of those times.
The boys game was tight for the entire first half with a 30-30 tie at half time. The teams traded the lead several times. The largest Ram lead was four points; the largest Norse lead was three points.
The Norsemen scored last in the first half and continued to score in the third quarter. They built a 39-30 lead before the Rams scored. The Rams struggled to catch up the rest of the game. Score after the third quarter was 51-45. R-S led 69-57 with just more than two minutes left to play. Final score was 73-62. R-S scored an average 61 points going into the game, while the Rams’ average was 70 points.
The good news of the game was senior Landon Braun’s 20 points. His first 18 points came from 3-point baskets – two in the first and fourth quarters and one in each of the middle two quarters. His 2-point basket was late in the game. Junior Tyler Beger scored nine points, all of them as 3-point baskets. Sophomore Reid Lamoureux also had a 3-pointer; he scored a total of five points.
Riah Nelsen scored 11 points, Max Neese scored four points and Matt Gordon scored three points.
The Ram girls are 4-5 overall and 4-4 in the Heart of Iowa Activities Conference. The Ram boys are 4-3 in the HOIAC and 4-4 overall.
