Western Boone Jr. - Sr. High School

LIZTON - It's hard to overcome big deficits on the road. The Western Boone boys basketball team found that out the hard way Friday night when they traveled to Tri-West. WeBo dug themselves a big hole in the fourth quarter, then couldn't finish off a comeback in a 50-44 loss. "I thought we were going to come out a lot better than that," Western Boone head coach Dustin Oakley said. "We already planned on switching up defenses throughout the game, but against our man defense in the first quarter we missed some of our coverages and they hit some 3s against us. You can't give Tri-West a 14-point lead and expect to win." After falling behind 21-7 in the first quarter, the Stars got within nine heading into the locker room at the half. Coming out for the second half, Western Boone looked like a different team. Two baskets by Levi LaGrange, one from Luke Barta and Marcus Stepp brought WeBo within one and forced a Bruins timeout. "We asked the guys at halftime if they believed we could win," Oakley said. "We wanted them to fight and execute. Levi LaGrange responded well and got us some steals and lay-ups in transition and we got the lead in the third quarter. We led a lot in the second half, just couldn't finish." The Bruins led 39-36 heading to the fourth quarter. WeBo went on an 8-0 run early in the fourth, taking a 44-41 lead with 4:30 remaining on a basket by LaGrange. But WeBo went cold after that, not scoring another point as Tri-West closed the game on a 9-0 run. "I'll take the blame on that," Oakley said. "I thought we had some looks on our dribble hand-offs and our motion to get to the basket and we had some guys not take advantage of that. But that's my fault for not getting a timeout there to get us organized. We wanted our seniors to execute and bring us a win there, and we just couldn't get it done." Luke Barta led the Stars with 15 points. WeBo also got 10 from LaGrange and seven from Stepp. "(Barta) came this summer and he was our best player," Oakley said. "What you saw tonight, he was doing that all summer. He is getting rebounds, he is a threat inside, he's blocking shots - and tonight I think was a big eye opener for him to see how well he could play against a conference opponent." The Stars, now 1-1, travel up to face a solid Taylor squad on Saturday. "We have to limit our turnovers," Oakley said. "They are going to be very aggressive and press us a little bit. They are super athletic and we have to get a better start. I told them that I'm anxious to see what we look like coming off the bus. It's an hour-long trip, and we need to be ready to play hard for 32 minutes." Will Willems is the Sports Editor of the Lebanon Reporter. Follow him on Twitter @Will_Willems. Saturday The Boys basketball teams traveled to Taylor High School on Saturday night and came away with a 1-1 record. The night started with the JV contest which saw the Stars jump out to an early 15-3 lead. Taylor would battle back and only trail by 3 after the 3rd quarter but the JV Stars would pull away and win 51-38. Scoring for the Stars was Marcus Fortner 16, Tristyn Faulk 10, Eli Mitchell 9, Drew Gott 6, Jackson Grimes 5, Gavin Hawkins 3 and Carter Hanna 2. The Varsity team tried to overcome a slow start again but couldn't quite do it and fell by a final score of 62-39. Taylor jumped on Webo early (22-5) but the Stars were able to cut the lead to 8 in the 3rd quarter but couldn't get any closer than that. Scoring for the Stars was Marcus Stepp 13, Kaden Bennington 8, Luke Barta 6, Blake Miller 4, Jaxson Gott 4, Levi LeGrange 3 and Josiah Smith 1. The Stars take on Covington next on Tuesday night at home.