B-T boys add two more wins, Storlie reaches 900 games

The Blair-Taylor High School boys basketball team added two more wins last week as the 2021-22 season nears its end — the Wildcats have just one more game on their schedule before the postseason begins next week.

The Wildcats won a pair of Dairyland Large Conference games on the road last week, the first a tight win over Cochrane-Fountain City on Tuesday in coach Randy Storlie’s 900th game as a high school coach before vaulting over Augusta on Friday.

B-T, now 15-8 on the season and 9-5 in the conference, hosts Melrose-Mindoro on Thursday to close regular season play. They’ll open Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association competition this coming Tuesday with a home game against (15) Independence. 

B-T is the second seed in its WIAA bracket and would host games throughout the regional final. Should they win on Tuesday, they’d play either (7) Coulee Christian/Providence Academy or (10) Brookwood on Friday with the regional final set for Saturday.

Blair-Taylor 51 C-FC 43

The Wildcats had to overcome a slow start on Tuesday, as the host Pirates held a 19-9 advantage early on.

But Blair-Taylor managed to tie the game at 20 just before the half, enough of a boost to lead them to a second half takeover—the visitors led by nine with about five minutes remaining and held on from there.

“We started out very slow, but we felt we took their best punch and we were still standing at halftime,” Storlie told the Times. “The guys really handled the ball very well late in the game and did what we wanted.”

Four different players had at least 10 points for the Wildcats, who were paced by 15 from Evan Nehring and 11 from Cain Fremstad and Kyle Obieglo.

B-T (field goals/attempts-free throws/attempts-rebounds -points)—Obieglo 2/4-5/6-3-11, Kruse 4/7-2/2-7-20, Swanson 1/7-1/2-3-4, Fremstad 5/13-1/3-11-11, Nehring 6/7-3/6-8-15.

Blair-Taylor 83 Augusta 64

Storlie and the Wildcats avenged a loss to the Beavers from earlier this season, winning their second game of the week on Friday. The Wildcats have now won eight of their last 10 games.

It was a game of runs for both sides, as the visitors led 44-31 at the break before the Beavers came roaring back with a 23-11 run, cutting Blair-Taylor’s lead to a single point.

The Wildcats responded with their own run, this one a 28-10 advantage, to cruise to a victory Storlie said made him proud.

“We could have folded when they made that big run at us in the second half, but we never gave up the lead and kept our composure,” he said. “Those last minutes of the game we really did what we wanted to do on both ends of the floor.”

Fremstad scored 26 points and grabbed 14 rebounds and was helped by a 22-point night from freshman Ethan Kniseley and a 19-point night from Jaren Swanson.

B-T (field goals/attempts-free throws/attempts-rebounds-fouls-points)—Kniseley 9/13-0/0-2-22, Obieglo 1/4-2/2-4-4, Kruse 3/10-0/0-8-6, Swanson 6/10-4/4-9-19, Fremstad 11/15-3/4-14-26, Nehring 3/7-0/0-4-6.