And the first shall be the last

With Unity Christian leaving the War Eagle Conference at the end of the 2022-23 school year, Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn had one last chance to earn its first boys' basketball victory against the Knights.

Mission accomplished.

Scoring on the first possession, H-M-S built an eight-point lead in the first half and made enough shots and defensive plays down the stretch to earn a 67-64 win. The victory on Dec. 20 at Orange City ended a 13-game losing streak to the Knights.

Hawk coach Naet Hoaglund was especially happy with the Hawks' competitive level after a disappointing loss to Gehlen Catholic the night before.

"I was really proud of how we responded and bounced back against Unity Christian," he said. "We were much improved on the defensive end, especially in the first half and on some critical possessions in the fourth quarter."

He added that the Hawks did a better job of getting out on shooters and were effective at keeping the ball out of the high and low post area. Offensively, H-M-S had good ball movement, attacked the paint and knocked down shots in critical situations. The Hawks led 14-9 after one quarter and 29-21 at half time.

Unity Christian applied defensive pressure in the second half, but Hoaglund felt the Hawks responded well against it. He acknowledged that play was a "little sloppy" late in the game, but H-M-S overcome turnovers and missed free throws to earn the victory.

Kooper Ebel had a "phenomenal game" with 29 points, eight rebounds, four assists and two steals. Lance Berends added 17 points, 15 rebounds and three assists.

Complementing their efforts were Travis Kamradt and Trenton Vollink, who scored nine points each on critical three-pointers. Keevyn Jacobsma's three points came on free throws that helped H-M-S maintain the lead.

H-M-S made 23-of-44 shots from the floor but was only 14-of-28 at the foul line.

Jacobsma also grabbed seven rebounds, and Vollink added two rebounds and two assists.

• vs. Gehlen Catholic

After not having played a game since Dec. 5, H-M-S's return to the court did not produce positive results. Gehlen Catholic took advantage of the Hawks' slow start and later went on a second-half run to propel them to a 78-46 win on Dec. 19 in Hartley.

The Jays scored the first eight points and led 20-13 after one quarter. H-M-S cut the deficit to three early in the second but the Jays quickly extended the lead back to 12, which was the margin at half time (37-25).

"We got off to a rough start against a very talented team," Hoaglund noted. "We played slow and out of sync offensively, and really struggled to find any rhythm. Defensively we were late on our rotations and struggled to get out on shooters."

H-M-S stayed within striking distance in the second half, but Gehlen Catholic extended the lead to 15 points to end the third quarter and continued to build on it. The Hawks were outscored by a 45-20 margin in the second half.

Turnovers were an area of concern for H-M-S

"You're not going to win many games turning the ball over 19 times," Hoaglund admitted. "We've got to value our possessions more if we want to beat quality teams."

Ebel led H-M-S with 16 points and 16 rebounds. Despite being double- and triple-teamed much of the time, Berends scored 15 points and added seven rebounds.

Kamradt added nine points and Jacobsma finished with four points and seven rebounds.

H-M-S finished its pre-Christmas schedule at 3-2 overall and 1-1 in WEC play. They return to action on Jan. 3 against Graettinger-Terril/Ruthven-Ayrshire.