Red Oak falls to Harlan, Glenwood
RED OAK — The Red Oak boys basketball team lost Friday night at home to the undefeated in conference Harlan Cyclones 67-47.
Red Oak (1-13 overall, 0-7 conference) recovered in the fourth quarter after being down by as much 43 points.
“Regardless of scoreboard or where we’re at, we just want to focus on getting better and trying to improve every game, every practice, everyday,” Red Oak boys basketball coach Theo Fundermann said.
The Tigers outscored Harlan in the final quarter 23-7.
Red Oak entered the fourth quarter trailing 60-24. They were quickly energized thanks to three-pointers by Jordan Nelson and Weston Rolenc.
“Weston did a nice job and we knew it’s in him. He’s capable of doing that on a nightly basis,” Fundermann said. “Once he finally got comfortable out there, he knocked down those four straight [attempts] and got the crowd into it. It was fun to watch him kind of come out of his shell as he was going through it.”
With a couple of buckets by Ryan Leininger, Red Oak erased enough of a deficit that it stopped the mercy rule running clock.
“I thought our guys did a good job of just fighting and staying in it and knocked down some really nice shots,” Fundermann said.
With the Harlan starters out of the game by that point, the Cyclones quickly brought them back in for damage control.
Red Oak however kept the game from going back to a running clock from that point on.
“We just continue topreach the same message. We don’t want to quit. We want to fight and just keep clawing and staying in the ball game,” Fundermann said. “We were able to get some shots to drop and do some things that we weren’t able to do in the first quarter.”
The Tigers struggled in the first quarter as they were shutout.
“I don’t think they needed to do anything special. Harlan is a very good basketball team,” Fundermann said. “They don’t have to do a whole lot of different things.”
The first score for Red Oak came with 6:46 until halftime, courtesy of Leininger. Harlan went into halftime leading 34-12.
Both Leininger and Nelson were the only scorers for Red Oak until the third quarter.
“Jordan [Nelson] and Ryan [Leininger] have been pretty solid and steady for us all season. What we’ve been searching for is a third scorer and a fourth and a fifth scorer,” Fundermann said. “If we can get some guys that can come along with, it will only make Jordan and Ryan’s game better.”
Leininger was the leading scorer for Red Oak as he finished with 21 points. Rolenc had 12 points, while Nelson recorded 10.
Glenwood 82,
Red Oak 55
Red Oak fell behind early and played catch-up for the remainder of the game in the loss last Tuesday in Glenwood.
The Tigers trailed 23-8 to Glenwood in the first quarter. Red Oak picked up the scoring in the second quarter, but trailed 46-23 at halftime.
Leininger led the way for Red Oak by scoring 28 points. Nelson had 16 points. Both Leininger and Nelson scored the bulk of the points for the Tigers.
Rolenc had four points, while Conner Jansky had three. Eddie Perez and Evan Mellott each scored two points.
Red Oak was home Monday night for a doubleheader versus Southwest Valley. Results weren’t available as of press time.
Tuesday night, Red Oak goes on the road to play St. Albert. The game starts at 7:30 p.m.
Friday night, Red Oak is home to face Atlantic. Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m.
“I feel like us coming through these two weeks of some really difficult ball games and never letting up and never quitting, only improves our chances of becoming a team I think we can become Feb. 17 when the district tournament starts,” Fundermann said.