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Primed for a successful season
Fennimore boys open with back-to-back wins over Cassville and Barneveld
808A7499--Liam Kenney dribbliong past defender vs. Barneveld 11-24-17
Liam Kinney dribbling - Photo by John Linden

The Fennimore boys basketball team is off and running.

With lofty expectations for a veteran team, the Golden Eagles have not disappointed in the early going.

Fennimore hammered host Cassville 78–31 in a non-conference game last Tuesday then rallied past defending WIAA Division 5 state champion Barneveld 73–65 last Friday night.

Junior guard Reid Larson scored a game-high 22 points on 7 of 12 shooting to lead four Fennimore players in double figures in Tuesday’s win at Cassville. He made 5 of 9 3-point attempts and finished with five rebounds and two steals.
Sophomore point guard Kellen Kenney added 17 points, seven boards and four steals, and senior guard Liam Kenney had 15 points, four assists, three rebounds and two steals.

Freshman Adam Larson added 12 points and four rebounds in his varsity debut.

Senior Dakota Govier had seven points and grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds. Cole Needham chipped in five points and six boards.

“You could tell it was our first game, we came out a little sluggish and it took us a while to settle in,” said Fennimore head coach Tom Needham.

Fennimore led 41–18 at the half and pulled away in the final 18 minutes.

“Defensively, we started pressuring them a little bit more and forced them into a few turnovers toward the end of the first half,” said Needham. “Offensively, we started moving the ball and got some easy shots. I thought Kellen did a good job running the offense and pushing the ball up the floor.”

Friday, Fennimore outscored Barneveld 44–28 in the second half to overcome an eight-point halftime deficit.

“Being down eight at halftime, our kids didn’t panic and came out ready to play in the second half,” said Needham. “At halftime, we made some changes offensively against their match-up zone, which helped us get some better looks and we started making a few shots.”

Liam Kenney scored a game-high 23 points and made a pair of clutch free throws in the final minutes to help put the game out of reach.

Kellen Kenney made all six of his free throw attempts in the second and finished with 14 points.

“We knew we were in for a tough game. Barneveld is the returning state champs in Division 5 and return two really good players from that team,” said Needham. “I thought Liam did a good job on both ends of the floor for us all night. Our bench played really well for us. Cole, Trey Hunt, and Adam all gave us good quality minutes during the game. Defensively in the second half I thought we played really well defensively.  I thought Reid did a really good job on one of their best players, Malcolm Reed.”

Larson held Reed to just six second half points. Reed finished with 14.

Kauy Fargo scored a team-high 22 points to lead Barneveld (0–2).

NEXT: Fennimore hosted Highland in another non-conference game Tuesday night. The recap will be in next week’s Fennimore Times. The Golden Eagles will next travel to River Ridge on Thursday. They will then open Southwest Wisconsin Activities League play Friday, Dec. 8 at home against Iowa–Grant.