Arcadia loses pace with Knights in home stretch

For a majority of their home game against Onalaska Luther, the Arcadia boys basketball team was battling close against the Knights. In the home stretch of the second half, however, the Raiders fell off pace and couldn’t recover late.

Luther (2-3, 1-0) pulled away to secure a 79-63 victory over Arcadia (2-4, 0-3) in their conference matchup last Tuesday at the Wanek Center.

The Raiders dueled well with Luther in the opening portion of the game, leading 16-13 in the middle stages of the first half. The Knights jumped ahead by six with a little over 10 minutes to go in the first with a 10-1 run.

Arcadia responded well to tie the game on several occasions, and the two teams were knotted up at 33-33 in the final minute of the opening half. A late 6-1 burst by Luther allowed them to carry a 39-34 advantage into the locker room at the break.

The Raiders continued to battle closely with the Knights and tied things up at 45-45 when sophomore Deklyn Grzadzielewski canned a three with 13:31 remaining. From there, Luther seized control of the proceedings with a 10-0 run for the biggest lead of the evening for either team at the time.

The closest Arcadia could get the rest of the way was a six-point deficit, though the Knights pulled away from good in the final minutes.

Grzadzielewski set the pace for the Raiders with 24 points, which included going 6 of 11 from 3-point range. Other Arcadia leaders were junior Trevor Pronschinske with 13 points, five assists, four rebounds and four steals, junior Carter Wegman with 12 points and junior Jonah Slaby with 11 points.

Double-digit scorers for Luther were senior Brody Greeno with 19 points, senior Max Huelskamp with 18, junior Logan Pierce with 14 and freshman Javon Zenke with 11.

The Knights dominated on the boards, holding a 35-14 rebounding edge over Arcadia, including a 12-4 margin on the offensive glass.

Between Christmas and New Year’s, the Raiders will take part in the Lewiston Auto Holiday Basketball Classic at Winona State University’s McCown Gymnasium. They’ll play Lewiston-Altura on Monday at 11:45 a.m. and Plainview-Elgin-Millville on Tuesday at 11:45 a.m.

Arcadia (field goals/attempts-free throws/attempts-rebounds-fouls-points)—Grzadzielewski 7/15-4/4-1-4-24; Wegman 4/11-1/4-1-3-12; Pronschinske 5/10-0/0-4-3-13; Sanchez 0/1-0/0-4-2-0; Blaschko 0/2-1/2-4-4-1; Slaby 3/7-4/5-0-3-11; Aguilar Cruz 1/1-0/0-0-0-2