(photo by Jim Lindquist)
A week off couldn't come at a better time in the schedule.
After Friday night's 77-55 Missota Conference loss at Red Wing the Tigers are looking forward to a week's respite. Not so much to work on the x's and o's of the game but simply to take time to heal.
Three front-line players--Nick Varner, Austin Bassett and Mackinley Bassett--missed the Red Wing affair altogether due to injury and leading scorer Darren Beenken still wasn't 100 percent after re-aggravating an old ankle injury two games ago. He played only 10 minutes in the contest.
"We've got a lot of guys down right now," coach Shane Wyandt said. "There are players finding themselves in positions they've not been in before."
The patchwork Tiger lineup kept the game close in the early going, and in fact led 12-6, before the Wingers pulled away to a commanding 41-23 halftime lead.
"When we stuck to the game plan things went pretty well," Wyandt said, "but once they (Red Wing) hit a couple of three's, we seemed to abandon it all together. That part was disappointing."
The visitors played the Wingers close in the second period (36-32) but could never recover from their big halftime deficit.
To add insult to all of the Tiger injuries, Red Wing had one of its best shooting nights of the season. The Wingers canned nine of 17 three-point attempts and also made a living at the foul line, hitting 22 of 32 chances.
Johnny Dittman matched his career-high of 14 points but was the only Tiger to score in double digits. Tom Sell added nine points and Beenken and Alex Chadwick each chimed in with seven.
The Tigers (2-5) start the second round of Missota Conference play Friday night when they entertain Shakopee (3-4) at Tiger Gym and Wyandt is hoping he will have a least some of his troops back by then.
"Hopefully, Darren (Beenken) will be ready to go and Nick (Varner) is going to give practice a go on Monday," he said. "Mac and Austin both have knee issues, so we'll just have to see how things go next week."
