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After playing 3 games the prior week, last week had the boys in one contest on Friday against the Nashwauk-Keewatin Spartans. The Eagles (8-9) were looking for a win to get their record back to .500 for the season, while the Spartans had won 5 in a row to put their record at 10-10. The teams' records proved to be as evenly matched as the game.

The Spartans starting lineup consisted of four seniors and a junior and early on, that experience, combined with the Eagles inability to get any shots to fall, helped them jump out to a 14-4 lead. Eventually, working the ball inside seemed to open up some easy baskets and the Eagles steadily ate into the Spartan lead and tied the game at 20. Closing the half with a 3-pointer at the buzzer by Taylor Smith, saw the Eagles leading 29-24.

In the second half, the game continued to see-saw back and forth in opening minutes as the Spartans started to mount their comeback and eventually took the lead at 41-40. About the midway point of second half the Eagles offense sputtered as they fell behind 55-45. With less than 2 minutes to play and trailing 58-48, the Eagles put on a dazzling comeback effort to close gap to 61-58 and had Sophomore Gary Gross on the line for a pair of free throws with 5 seconds left. After making the first to close gap to 61-59 a missed second attempt was rebounded by senior Patrick Kemper, who was fouled on his put-back attempt and had the ball roll around the rim for what seemed like 3-4 seconds before it fell off the side and out. A missed first attempt led to a purposely missed second which the Spartans corralled, were fouled, and sealed the victory by adding another free throw, 62-59.

Coach Watkins after the game was pleased with how the boys played defensively for the majority of the game. "They (Spartans) are averaging over 70 points per game, and our defense played very well throughout much of the game tonight. We still can do better on the boards and will work on our defensive positioning."

Offensively the Eagles were led by Kemper with 23 points. Only one other Eagle hit double figures scoring on the night, Smith added 12. Kemper led with 18 rebounds, while Justin Wicks added seven and Gary Gross grabbed six.

EAGLES SCORING vs Spartans- Smith-12, Nornberg-5, Kemper-23, G Gross-5, Wicks-6, Perkins-4, L. Gross-4.

The next action for the boys will be a home game on Friday, Feb. 22 vs Hill City. On Monday, Feb. 25, the makeup game at Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig will be a varsity only game at 4:00 p.m. Parents Night will be Tues., Feb. 26 against the Floodwood Polar Bears, this is also the last regular season home game.

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