Indees fall to Warriors

The Independence boys basketball team couldn’t stop Neillsville in the second half.

The Warriors put up 44 points in the second frame to pull away for a 65-33 win. The Indees were slated to play Cochrane-Fountain City last Thursday, but the game had to be postponed due to a COVID-19 exposure.

Independence enters this week with a record of 1-8 (0-4 in Dairyland Conference play) before playing at Melrose-Mindoro on Tuesday and at home against Augusta on Friday. Independence will head to Black River Falls next Tuesday and Blair-Taylor next Thursday. 

Neillsville 65 IHS 33

Domination in the paint helped the Warriors pull away in the second half.

Independence’s defense held Neillsville down in the first half as they entered halftime trailing 21-15. The second half was another story, however, as the Warriors dominated the glass and scored 44 points to break the game open.

Neillsville only shot 31.3 percent, but had 86 field goal attempts in the game, in part because they had 55 rebounds. Andrew Brown led the team with 28 points and seven rebounds, while Mason Roenz had 14 rebounds and Alex Roman had 10 boards. 

Independence shot 31 percent and had a difficult time taking care of the ball, turning it over 36 times.

Tyler Kingsbury and Ben Pyka both scored 11 points for the Indees while Brandon Sylla scored three, Nathan Pyka, Aberlardo Lopez Cruz and Angel Mendoza all had two points.

Independence (field goals-free throws-rebounds-fouls-points) — Kingsbury 4-2-6-0-11 Pyka 4-3-6-3-11 Sylla 0-3-2-0-3 N. Pyka 1-0-7-2-2 Lopez Cruz 1-0-2-2-2 Mendoza 1-0-1-1-2 Pfaff 0-0-2-0-0 Santillan 0-0-1-1-0