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MCDONALD'S SWNEWS4U GAME OF THE WEEK (Boys Basketball): Fennimore 50, River Ridge 43
Golden Eagles hold off three-time reigning Six Rivers West champion River Ridge
Brady Larson
Fennimore senior guard Brady Larson scored game-high 21 points in last week’s 50-43 win over River Ridge. He also had this two-handed dunk (pictured) in Saturday's non-conference win over Barneveld.

MCDONALD'S SWNEWS4U.COM GAME OF THE WEEK (Nov. 22–29)
BOYS BASKETBALL: Fennimore 50, River Ridge 43

By Jason Nihles, Fennimore Times / The Platteville Journal / Boscobel Dial

Golden Eagles hold off three-time reigning Six Rivers West champion River Ridge

FENNIMORE — The new-look Fennimore boys basketball team is off to a quick 2–0 start after a pair of close non-conference victories over River Ridge and Barneveld last week.

Last Tuesday night, senior point guard Brady Larson scored a game-high 21 points on an efficient 7 of 14 shooting, which included a breakaway two-handed jam, to go with six rebounds, four steals and three assists to lead the Golden Eagles to a 50–43 win over three-time defending Six Rivers West champion River Ridge.

Sophomore Evan Larson, Brady’s youngest brother and the fourth of the Larson brood, added 12 points, five assists and four rebounds in his varsity debut.

Senior Lucas Lendosky, the only other returning starter for coach Troy Larson’s Eagles, chipped in eight points and six rebounds. Sophomore Matthew Winch finished with seven points and six rebounds in his varsity debut. 6-foot-3 junior Aidan Peterson scored Fennimore’s other two points and grabbed four rebounds.

Fennimore held River Ridge to just 26.9 percent from the field (14 of 52), including 18.2 percent on 3-pointers (4 of 22).

Senior Braden Crubel scored 18 points to pace the Timberwolves (0–1), but needed 22 shots to get there and made just 2 of 11 from beyond the arc. Evan Larson (6–3) also held 6-foot-6 Matthew Nies to just four points on 1 of 5 shooting.  

“I thought defensively we played really solid,” said Larson. “Our underclassmen really stepped up on that end and I was happy about that.”

Saturday, Fennimore battled through a trough a rough shooting night but outscored Barneveld 29–17 in the second half to rally for a 50–41 win.

“The key to Saturday’s game is that we continued to battle. Offensively as a team it was not a great showing. Brady suffered a wrist injury at Ridge and he did not shoot the ball very well Saturday.

“But I was happy with the last five minutes of the game; we executed almost perfectly finding open guys in great positions to score closer to the hoop and we secured the win.”

Brady Larson scored a game-high 22 points on 7 of 19 shooting and had seven rebounds and seven steals.

Lendosky scored eight points and grabbed a career-high 12 rebounds. Evan Larson and Peterson scored seven points each. 

“Offensively we have done enough to win, but its not were we need to be,” added coach Larson. “We have a lot of kids with very minimal varsity experience and trying to understand what we are trying to accomplish and that is going to take some time. That’s how it goes at the begging of each year. We are still trying to find our identity.” 

Fennimore 50, River Ridge 43
(from Tuesday, Nov. 22 @ Fennimore)
River Ridge....21  22 —  43  
Fennimore.....27  23 —  50 
River Ridge (0–1) Aidan Gage 8, Carter Copsey 3, Braden Crubel 18, Matthew Nies 4, Andrew Nies 3, Anthony Davis 2, Elliott Thornton 2, Luke Patterson 3. Totals — 14-52 11-17 43.
Fennimore (1–0) — Evan Larson 12, Brady Larson 21, Lucas Lendosky 8, Matthew Winch 7, Aidan Peterson 2. Totals — 19-44 10-20 50.
3-point goals — RR: 4-22 (Copsey 1, Crubel 2, Patterson 1), F: 2-8 (E. Larson 1, B. Larson 1). Team fouls — RR: 22, F: 19. Fouled out — RR: Gage.