By John Kemmeter

The Division 5 sixth-ranked Almond-Bancroft boys basketball team suffered its first loss of the season, as it split a pair of games against Division 3 teams at the 47th Sentry Classic at Bennett Court at Quandt Fieldhouse.

The Eagles (8-1) avenged a loss from a year ago when they beat Amherst (0-9) Thursday Dec. 27, but then fell 72-49 to Stratford (8-0) in a battle of unbeatens Friday, Dec. 28.

“There’s some things we need to get better at, obviously,” said Almond-Bancroft boys basketball head coach Curt Lamb. “But it’s why we play these games, so hopefully it helps move forward.”

Almond-Bancroft senior guard Jon Perrin tries to get around a defender in the sixth-ranked Eagles’ 72-49 loss to Stratford at the 47th Sentry Classic at Bennett Court at Quandt Fieldhouse Friday, Dec. 28. (John Kemmeter photo)

In its Sentry Classic opener Thursday afternoon, Almond squared off with Amherst, which beat the Eagles 60-36 last year at the tournament.

Almond got off to a fast start Thursday, as it jumped out to a 16-2 lead with 11:02 left in the first half, and ended the opening half on a 9-1 run to take a 37-18 lead into halftime.

The Eagles outscored Amherst 12-2 to open the second half and extend their lead to 49-20 with 12:29 to play and went on to a 75-44 win, as senior guard/forward Cade Lamb was 4-of-8 on three-pointers and finished with 22 points and 11 rebounds, and senior guard Noah Kollock scored 22 points.

“They got after us right from the start; it was a fight, especially underneath,” said Kollock. “We could’ve rebounded a little better, but overall, we shot the ball decent and we just came out there and competed and we got a win.”

“I like how we came out and how the ball moved well,” said coach Lamb. “We did a nice job of skipping the ball and attacking their gaps, and then we made some shots, which always helps.”

Almond looked to remain unbeaten Friday afternoon against Stratford, which came into the Sentry Classic following a 52-50 win over Division 4 third-ranked and reigning Division 4 State Runner-up Marathon Dec. 20.

Led by the duo of 6-7 junior center Ben Barten and 6-5 junior forward Vaughn Breit inside, Stratford got out to an 18-6 lead on the Eagles to start the game.

Kollock knocked down a three-pointer to bring Almond within 26-19 with 5:35 to play in the first half, but Stratford used a 17-8 spurt to close out the half and go into intermission with a 43-27 lead, as Barten had 20 points and Breit scored 14 in the first half to account for 34 of Stratford’s 43 points.

“Unfortunately we missed a couple of close ones, a couple of layups ripped out, and everything kind of snowballs a little bit out of that,” said coach Lamb. “But their size down low was a problem to try to compensate with that, just the defensive rebounding, those kind of things.”

Almond went to a full-court press to start the second half and cut its deficit to 51-42 with 11:59 to go on a three-pointer from Cade Lamb, but Stratford countered with an 11-3 run to extend its lead to 62-45 with 6:09 left, and went on to a 72-49 win.

Barten, who was named the Most Outstanding Player of the Boys American Division, shot 13-of-15 from the field and finished with 29 points and 10 rebounds, while Breit was 10-of-13 form the field and totaled 21 points and six rebounds to lead Stratford, which shot 65.8 percent from the field (25-of-38)

“They know where their bread is buttered, they just hammer it down there, and there’s not much you can do about that,” said coach Lamb. “We talked about maybe playing a little zone, but realistically they’re going to get it in there anyway.

“We tried to get around the front, our weak-side defense was a little slow a couple of times rotating over,” he said. “But then when you do that then they had some kids who made some threes too, some kids we were trying to play off of according to their percentages on this year, and they made them today.”

Kollock scored 19 points and was named to the Boys American Division All-Classic Team, Cade Lamb finished with 11 points and seven rebounds, and senior guard Zach Bunders had 10 points and four steals to lead Almond, which is set to play at home against Northland Lutheran at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 4.

Next month, the Eagles will also have nonconference games against Division 4 seventh-ranked Mineral Point at JustAgame Fieldhouse in Wisconsin Dells Saturday, Feb. 2, and host Gresham Friday, Feb. 8, and Barneveld Saturday, Feb. 9.

“This year we beefed up our schedule, we’ve got (Stratford) and we’ve got a couple of other big teams coming up,” said coach Lamb. “So hopefully this will make us better for our conference, and then when we go into the State Tournament, hopefully we’ll be ready to go at that time.”