ELGIN — It was only a matter of time.
It took one quarter for the Wolfpack to warm up as Elgin Public-Pope John boys rolled to a 48 to 37 victory over Boyd County in a matchup of Niobrara Valley Conference teams Saturday night.
The Wolfpack used an 11 to three run to start the second quarter to gain the lead and never trailed again.
A trey by senior Paiton Hoefer got the run started, followed by baskets from Dylon Lueking, Nick Anderson and Blake Henn followed by another two-pointer by Hoefer to lead 20 to 11 with just under five minutes left before halftime.
“We did some good things out there tonight,” Coach Matt Euse said about the victory. He praised the inside play of Blake Henn and Nick Anderson. “On the defensive end, we played really well,” Euse added.
The Spartans closed to within three before Wolfpack freshman Jarek Erickson came off the bench to sink two free throws for a five point lead at intermission.
The second half started strong for EPPJ as Hoefer and Lueking drilled back-to-back treys to give EPPJ an 11-point lead with just two minutes gone in the quarter. The teams traded points before Austin Good and Camryn Pelster sank two pointers to maintain a comfortable lead.
At the start of the fourth quarter, Anderson had back-to-back baskets to again make the lead 10 points.
The Wolfpack closed out the game with field goals from Henn and Good, then went to the free throw line and sank five of eight free throws in the final minute.
Lueking led EPPJ with 14 points, Hoefer added 10. No other stats from Saturday’s game were available from Coach Euse as of press time Tuesday. The victory boosted EPPJ’s record to 5-2. Turn to this week’s Elgin Review for the complete story.
