WHARTON — The La Grange High School boy’s basketball team was defeated by Wharton High School Nov. 27 at Tigers Gym by a final score of 66-58. La Grange hung tough with Wharton throughout this match, but Wharton's athleticism and ability to get to the basket was a little too much for the Leopards. “I felt like we needed to be able to play the way we played in that second half,” said La Grange head boy’s basketball coach Trent Collier.
"That needed to show up in the first half. I think a little bit of shell shock. A little shock to our system. Early on, we weren't cutting hard. We weren’t doing the things that we do. The second half, we got on the floor. I think that was the difference in that second half. We just got to keep developing that trust. Know that the guy on the bench is gonna play as hard as I am. I felt like Nate (Scott) stepped up tonight and gave us a lift scoring wise. I thought Re-ece (Nygren) played a great fourth quarter. That effort from him was unbelievable. I thought our bench showed up in big ways. I just thought we played more like Leopard basketball in the second half. In the first half, I thought we were kind of timid.”
Wharton was up as much as 13 points in the fourth quarter at 5845 before La Grange started to chip back into the lead with a double clutch layup from senior forward Nate Scott and a free throw from senior center Reece Nygren to make it 60-50. Wharton then banked in a jump shot at the 2:40 mark to make it 62-50 and the Leopards responded with a layup.
With 1:30 to play, Leopards junior Cordale Knapik put in a fast break layup after a turnover to cut the deficit to 62-54, then Wharton answered with a layup and a jumper to take a 66-54 lead with about a minute to go and it was too much for La Grange to overcome as time was running out, resulting in a 66-58 win for Wharton.
