ELGIN — Playing their final regular season game, Elgin Public-Pope John dropped their eighth game of the season Friday night.
The scoreboard read O’Neill St. Mary’s 50, Wolfpack 34, an outcome many EPPJ fans didn’t see coming.
After taking an 11-point lead at the end of the first quarter, the Wolfpack were outscored 46 to 19 over the final three quarters.
Everything was clicking for the Wolfpack in the first quarter as Dylon Lueking, Paiton Hoefer and Jack Wemhoff drained treys. Inside, Blake Henn, Nick Anderson and Jarek Erickson scored under the basket.
Everything looked good for EPPJ then, like a sudden shift of winds in a thunderstorm, the Cardinals came charging back. Behind senior Isaac Everitt and freshman Gage Hedstrom, St. Mary’s started to connect, cutting the Wolfpack’s lead to 20 to 16 at halftime.
Then, over the final two quarters, it seemed like the Wolfpack couldn’t get a break at either end of the floor. Over the final 16 minutes of the game, St. Mary’s outscored the Wolfpack 34 to 14 to earn the victory and hand EPPJ their second loss in a row.
For more information, see this week’s Elgin Review.
