Trojans nurse lead, beat New Prague in boys basketball, 59-52
Dec. 17—WORTHINGTON — It's exciting to see points scored. But sometimes it can be just as impressive to watch a basketball team protect its lead.
The Worthington Trojans boys basketball squad led New Prague 34-27 at the half, hovered around a 10-point lead for much of the second half, then saw the visiting Trojans pull to within three points with over four minutes to go in the game at the WHS gymnasium Saturday afternoon.
It was then that the home-town Trojans pulled back and leisurely passed the ball to each other for two minutes in the half-court. New Prague made no attempt defensively to challenge Worthington's ball-control strategy. Finally, with 2:39 remaining Worthington passed the ball inside to Jacari Swinea for a layup.
More smart, patient play by the Trojans in the final two and a half minutes gave WHS a 59-52 victory.
Why resort to a standing passing game with more than four minutes to go?
"There's no shot clock, so we didn't have to rush it," said Worthington's Abagotte Opiew. "They weren't coming up (to guard us), so we just decided to pass the ball."
Said head coach Clint Meyer: "You want to stay aggressive offensively, but we were struggling a little bit in the zone. And if they're not going to come out, we'll pass the ball around. Eventually, they're going to have to come out and guard us. And we were winning."
The win upped Worthington's record to 2-1. New Prague fell to 1-5.
Saturday's game happened at the end of a rough week for all of southwest Minnesota's high school athletic teams. Literally every event from Monday through Friday was postponed or canceled due to blowing snowstorms.
"We didn't know what to expect (against New Prague)," Meyer said. "We haven't been playing since last Friday. We didn't practice Thursday or Friday.
On Saturday morning, Meyer scheduled a shootaround "to go over some things."
After the win, he said of his players, "They responded very well."
Worthington scored the first seven points of the first half against New Prague, but that's when 6-0 senior guard Noah Washa began to assert himself. A pair of Washa 3-point shots made the score 7-6, and at one point New Prague took the lead, 12-11.
But Worthington responded, and while Washa continued to shine in the second half (he made four more 3-pointers after intermission and finished with 22 points), WHS maintained its discipline.
Kaleb Knothe led Worthington with 18 points while Abagotte Opiew finished with 13 and brother Marenono Opiew had nine. Swinea tallied 12 points.
"We never panicked. Never gave up the lead," said Meyer.
Afterward, Abagotte Opiew said he's feeling just fine about Worthington's start compared to the 2021-22 campaign, when the team finished 7-19.
"I feel real good about it so far. We're playing better offensively, we're playing better defensively this year. We're moving better."
Worthington was scheduled to travel to Windom Area on Tuesday (Dec. 20).
New Prague 27 52
Worthington 34 59
NEW PRAGUE (3FG-2FG-FT-TP) — Washa 6-2-0-22, Cavanaugh 0-3-1-7, Ambroz 0-0-2-2, Solheid 0-1-0-2, Larue 0-4-1-9, Weichert 2-1-2-10. Totals 8-11-6-52.
WORTHINGTON (3FG-2FG-FT-TP) — Walu 0-1-0-2, A.Opiew 2-3-1-13, M.Opiew 2-1-1-9, Brands 0-0-1-1, Knothe 3-4-1-18, Swinea 0-6-0-12, McCoy 0-0-4-4. Totals 7-15-8-59.
