SHAWANO, WI- A little off time may be just what the Shawano boys basketball team needed to start the new year out right. Shawano topped Appleton North 46-43 Saturday for their first win of the season.
The Hawks (1-4) either led or trailed by five points or less for most of the game.
Kaleb Lowney hit a deep three point shot in the final minutes of the game and helped secure the win with a free throw in the final minute. Lowney led the Hawks with 9 points.
Shawano had a full team scoring effort with Jacob Landon, Brandon Reed and Ethan Schwitzer all scoring 8 points, and Rory Johnson and Elliot Lowney added 6 points each.
“Anytime you can win a game without having a double-digit scorer, that is a really good team win,” said Shawano Coach Dave Ambrosius.
The Hawks did a good job getting to the free throw line and they were successful there going 13 of 24 in the game.
“We made more free throws then we did earlier in the season, and that has been a key focus for us.”
“I think we are shooting over 1oo free throws at each practice so it is nice to see it pay off in a game,” said Senior Kaleb Lowney.
The lead changed hands six times in the first half and multiple times late in the game. Appleton North is used to close games with 7 of their first 10 games ended with a difference of 6 points or less.
For the Hawks it was the first game since December 12 after the team was quarantined in December.
“It was nice to start off our post-quarantine time with a good performance, Ambrosius said. “We took advantage with our off time to have some good conversations with the guys to figure out what we need to do and the two weeks off really allowed us to take some time, answer some questions and do some self evaluations.”
Lowney said it was good to be back and said they had to go back to simple practice when operations were shutdown.
“We had some weight workouts and just a basketball in hand in the driveway, that was all we could do,” he said. “It feels awesome to start the year this way and we can’t do much better than that. It is huge momentum for us, beating a team like Appleton North, you can’t beat that, that’s huge.”
Ambrosius said holding Appleton North to 43 points and holding their leading scorer Maximus Nelson to 11 points was big defensively.
Nelson entered the game averaging 20 points a game.
“I thought defensively, we did a great job and that is going to be a key to our success. Our defense has to be the consistent for us this year.”
For Appleton North, it was a return to Shawano for head coach Chris Kellett. The Lightening coach was the head coach in Shawano prior to Dave Ambrosius taking over.
“We have had a long-term relationship for many years and we have similar philosophies,” Ambrosius said.
Shawano returns to action on Tuesday at home against West De Pere.
Scoring
Shawano: Kaleb Lowney 9, Jacob Landon 8, Brandon Reed 8, Ethan Schwitzer 8, Elliot Lowney 6, Rory Johnson 6
Appleton North: Maximus Nelson 11, Andres Brekke 9, Trent Mullen 6, Jack Budiac 6, Ben Isom 4, AJ Heise 3, Garrett Staszak 2
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