Bryce Bates
HOPE — In the midst of its seven losses in the past eight games, Hauser has played some quality basketball at times, but not for a long enough period to pull out a win.
That was the case again Tuesday night. The Jets led at halftime, but gave up big scoring runs in the first and third quarters in a 64-57 loss to Oldenburg Academy.
“It’s kind of been that way throughout the whole year,” Hauser coach Brent Keck said. “We’ve shown spurts where we’ve been a good club, and then we’re having a hard time sustaining it for a full 32 minutes. We’re no different than anybody else. This is the time of year when you’re trying to play for a full 32 minutes, and we’re still having those moments where there’s too many gaps in our play. There’s still a window of time left to where we have to get some of those things cleaned up, but against a team with a bunch a team and as good a coach as coach (Gary) Moorman is, you can’t have those lapses mentally.”
After scoring the game’s first two points, the Jets (7-12) gave up 14 in a row, with the last 11 of those comin from Twisters senior C.J. Grote. Hauser came back with a 10-0 run to cut the lead to two and went ahead 25-23 at halftime.
Oldenburg (4-13) tied the game in the opening seconds of the third quarter, and the Jets regained the lead on a 3-pointer by Eli Miller. But then the Twisters ran off 11 in a row to take a 36-28 lead.
Hauser again rallied to tie the game in the fourth quarter, first at 41-41 on a steal and layup by Bryce Bates and again at 44-44 on a 3-pointer by Alex Cord. Oldenburg then went on a 7-0 run, and the Jets couldn’t get within four the rest of the way.
Grote went 12 for 15 from the field, including 7 for 10 from 3-point range, and 1 for 2 from the free-throw line to finish with a game-high 32 points.
“I thought (Grote) played outstanding,” Keck said. “They were senior-led, and they definitely came out and started the game with a good approach, and they did the same thing in the second half. We had talked about him, and we obviously didn’t do a good job of communicating and getting attached to him.”
Bryce Bates led Hauser with 20 points and seven rebounds, while Miller finished with 17 points, and Johnson added eight points. Cord dished out nine assists.
“I thought Cole Renner came in and did an outstanding job of giving us some energy and some juice and did an awesome job for us tonight,” Keck said. “I thought our kids showed some effort and showed some courage to back and battle back a little bit, but for us to be successful, we have to play a full 32 minutes. We are a blue collar team, and we just didn’t have a lot of purpose in some of the things we did tonight.”
