Boys basketball: Packers hold off Red Wing

Published 10:50 pm Tuesday, December 20, 2016

The Austin boys basketball team snapped out of a second half scoring slump just in time to hold off Red Wing 65-62 on the road Tuesday.

The Wingers (1-4 overall, 1-3 Big Nine) hit a three-pointer to pull within 65-62 with 11 seconds in the game. After the shot, the Packers missed the front end free throw of a one-and-one; the Wingers got the ball back, but they weren’t able to get a shot off as time expired.

Austin (3-0 overall, 2-0 Big Nine) led 60-43 in the second half, but it struggled from that point as the Wingers got back in the game with a 16-3 run. Both Gach put Austin up 65-59 when he converted a dunk off a steal with 13 seconds left in the game.

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“I was really happy with how we played defensively on those two side out of bounds plays at the end of the game,” Austin head coach Kris Fadness said. “The last ten minutes is nothing we’re really proud of. We haven’t had that killer instinct to put teams away this year and we’ve got some defensive issues right now that we have to fix.”

Red Wing went 17-for-23 on two-point field goals and it out-rebounded the Packers 34-24. Austin was able to off-set that as Duoth Gach went 9-for-10 on three-pointers on his way to scoring 31 points. The nine threes made in a game are the most by a Packer in at least 20 years.

“For us to win that game despite the stats is simply because of Duoth’s shooting line,” Fadness said. “I also thought Trent Brown really gave us a nice lift tonight.”

Austin 36  29  —  65

RW 25  37  —  62

Austin scoring: Duoth Gach, 31; Both Gach, 10; Moses Issa, 8; Trent Brown, 8; Oman Oman, 4; Tate Hebrink, 4; Kyle Oberbroeckling, 2; free throws: 33 percent (2-for-6); three-pointers: 44 percent (11-for-25)