The Horizon boys’ basketball team went into its final two games 10-2 and on a six-game winning streak, the Hawks’ longest of the season.
On Feb. 9, the boys were on the road in Fossil to face Condon/Wheeler looking to extend the winning streak to seven.
Four quarters wouldn’t be enough to decide a winner between the two schools and in overtime, Condon/Wheeler would end Horizon’s streak as the Hawks fell by a final score of 60-58.
Through three quarters, the Hawks had a 42-38 lead over Condon/Wheeler, but the home team would outscore the Hawks 13-9 in the final quarter to force overtime.
It went down to the wire in overtime, but the Hawks were unable to force a second overtime. With the win, Condon/Wheeler improved to 9-4 on the season and dropped the Hawks to 10-3.
In this game the Hawks were led by Bailey Holste, who had 20 points on 10-20 shooting from the field. Derek Johnston and Caleb Lingel were the only other Hawks in double digits, as they each had 13. Johnston led the team in assists with six and Lingel led the team in steals with five.
The loss for the Hawks meant its second-place league standing was not yet a given heading into the Districts Tournament, but it would be with a win the following day on Saturday, Feb. 10 at home versus Sherman.
The boys from Sherman were a perfect 13-0 in league play and were sitting comfortably at first in the 1A-6 Big Sky League standings.
With that being said, the Hawks were going to have to give it their all just a night after that tough overtime loss on the road.
Sherman came out in this game aggressive and never looked back.
The Hawks found themselves down 8-0 with 5:30 left before Holste hit a jump shot off an inbound play to make it 8-2.
After the Holste bucket, Sherman went on a 10-2 scoring run to take a 18-4 lead with 3:45 remaining.
A sign of life for the Hawks came from Johnston, who put in back-to-back jumpers after the 10-2 run to cut the Sherman lead to 10, 18-8.
But Sherman made another run to close out the first, ending the quarter outscoring the Hawks 7-2. The Hawks went into the second quarter down 25-10.
Sherman continued to dominate the Hawks in the second quarter and within the first five minutes, Sherman had a 16-8 advantage in the quarter; the Hawks would be outscored 21-14 in the second and go into halftime down 46-24.
The deficit in the first half would be too much for the Hawks to overcome and they would fall at home in their final game of the regular season by a final score of 69-50.
The Hawks’ leading scorer and only double-digit scorer versus Sherman was Johnston, who had 19 points on 8-12 shooting. Lingel and Andrew Wells were behind Johnston in scoring with seven each.
Horizon ends its regular season 10-4 in league play and 16-7 overall.
The loss in the final game of the season for the Hawks means Horizon will go into Districts tied for second with Condon/Wheeler, as Condon/Wheeler was able to beat Ione Feb. 10 to move to 10-4 in league play as well.
Districts will begin this weekend and the first round of the state tournament will follow on Wednesday, Feb. 21.
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