(Elk Horn) The Exira-EHK boys basketball team got a big win on Tuesday with their 55-48 decision over Ar-We-Va. The Spartans will try and keep the momentum going on Friday night when they host CAM.
The Cougars are an athletic opponent according to Exira-EHK coach Doug Newton. “We have a hard time simulating their athleticism in practice. They are just so big and strong, all of them are. When you go against your scout team it’s not the same thing so it’s hard to prepare for that. We are going to have to be able to match their intensity and physicality. We have to find shooters. All of them can score. They are physical on the rebounding side of things. We’ve got our hands full for sure.”
Tuesday’s victory moved Exira-EHK to 2-1 on the season. “We did a pretty good job of not quitting.” Newton says, “We hit some open shots in the 4th quarter that tightened it up and once it got close they made a couple of mistakes and we capitalized don those. A couple of kids hit some open shots on the perimeter because they were really packing it in.”
Newton indicates CAM isn’t showing much of any signs of a slow start to the season due to a deep run in football biting into practice time. “I’ve seen them play a couple of times already this year and that doesn’t seem to be an issue. The (Colby) Rich kid is lighting up. The (Lane) Spieker kid is such a competitor and he’s doing Spieker things. The (Sam) Foreman kid inside and (Cade) Ticknor and (Joe) Kauffman they come in and bang with you and get 50/50 balls and put backs. Then the little (Seth) Hensley kid has really improved. They have a lot of different weapons.”
Exira-EHK is led in scoring this season by sophomore Cash Emgarten at 11.5 points per game. Aiden Flathers, Derrek Kommes, Trey Petersen, Easton Nelson, and Jackson Radcliff are all averaging between 5.0 and 8.5 points per contest.
Exira-EHK coach Doug Newton:
