Pirates defeat Elkader Central as they go 1-3 for the week

By Gary Simmons, Sr.
ELKADER - The Warriors of Central Elkader hosted the Pirates last Monday (January 31) in a make-up game between Upper Iowa Conference foes. Postville had lost earlier this year at home 35-34 in a game in which the Pirates felt they should have won. Postville returned the favor defeating the Warriors 42-37 on their home floor.
This game was close all night as neither team could gain the advantage. Postville had the first quarter lead 8-6 but the Warriors came back in the second quarter to outscore Postville 10-7 and lead 16-15 at halftime.
Postville won the battle in the third quarter outscoring Central 13-9 to take a 28-24 lead into the fourth quarter. Central could not pull off the home court victory as the Pirates scored 14 points to the Warriors 12 to win the game 42-37.
Postville's Aandi Deering was the high scorer in the game with 21 points. Darren Kraus tossed in 14 and was 2 for 2 from three point land and 4 of 4 from the free throw line
Postville hit 16 of 43 from the floor for 37% and Central Elkader hit 15 of 50 shot from the field for 30%. Postville outrebounded Central 37 to 33 with Kraus and Deering pulling down 10 board each.
POSTVILLE - The North Fayette Hawks paid a visit to Postville for an Upper Iowa Contest last Tuesday (Feb. 1). The Hawks jumped on top early as four players scored in double digits for North Fayette. Eight Pirates made the scoring column for Postville in the 10 point loss 61-51.
The Hawks held a 20-12 first quarter lead and were outscored by the Pirates in the second quarter to cut North Fayette's lead to seven points, 33-26.
The rest of the game was played pretty evenly as North Fayette scored 28 points in the final two quarters of play while Postville stayed close with 25 points. The final score was 61-51 as the first quarter lead held up for a Hawks win.
The Pirates were led by Darren Kraus with 12 points, Matt Moore added 9 points. Nick Zieman collected 8 points, Aandi Deering tossed in 7 points, and teammate Tom Catterson hit two shots from three point land to finish with six points on the night.
Postville hit 19 of 48 shoots from the floor for 40% and North Fayette made 23 of 39 for 60%. The Pirates collected six points from free throws on 6 of 9 shooting for 67%. The Hawks hit 5 of 13 from the charity stripe for 38%.
MONONA - They don't call it a rival game for nothing. The Pirates traveled to play conference rival MFL MarMac last Friday night in a contest that had the home team playing with an injured (torn ACL) 6'8" senior Jeremy Winters, and the referees making inexcusable errors in the last minute of a close contest. All of which added up to a controversial win for the Bulldogs.
"Jeremy's a tough kid and he's a senior this year he really wanted to play tonight," MFL Head Coach Eric Dettbarn commented after the game. "So after talking with his parents, his doctor, and Jeremy, we decided to let him play."
Winters may have been hurt and not as mobile with the injury but he blocked Pirate Aandi Deering's shot on five different occasions when Deering challenged him under the basket.
"I told our post players before the game on the sidelines and when we took time outs, don't turnaround and shoot in his (Winters) face," Coach Mike Sass said. The Pirates still had trouble however.
Postville's defense kept the game close and a 3 pointer by the Bulldogs with 49 seconds left to play in the first quarter gave MFL a 13-8 early lead. MFL extended that lead to 25-16 by halftime and seemingly had the Pirates right where they wanted them.
The Pirates played the Bulldogs even in the third quarter cutting the deficit from 9 points to 8 points entering the fourth quarter trailing 37-29.
The Pirates got stuck on 29 until the 5:22 mark of the final period and MFL could only manage one three pointer in that same period. Then Postville started to score and the Bulldogs couldn't get off the 40 point mark. With 1:09 left to play in the game the Pirates had pulled to within three points as the score read 42-39. The 10 to 2 run by the Pirates made it anybody's game.
With :59.9 seconds left to play in the game the Indians junior guard Jens Olsen was fouled making it a one-for-one opportunity at the free throw line. Olsen missed the shot and Nick Zieman rebounded the ball and headed up court for the Pirates when the referee blew his whistle to stop the action. MFL MarMac had two players waiting to enter the game. Because they weren't signaled on the floor before the free throw, the scoring table claimed the referee had called a two shot foul not a one-for-one.
This led to some confusion as the two players were admitted into the game and Olsen was given a do-over on the one-for-one free throw opportunity. This time Olsen hit them both.
That momentum-buster was the turning point of the game for the Bulldogs. The called resulted in a five point lead for MFL instead of Postville heading the other direction with a chance to pull within one point or tie the game with a three point shot.
Postville was forced to foul with time running out and the Bulldogs escape with a home court 50-43 win.
"I don't know if we'd still have lost the game if that call hadn't occurred," commented Coach Sass. "I just know it didn't help. We didn't play smart basketball tonight. The effort was there. I've said that all season. You play with good effort and you win. We didn't play smart tonight."
The boys and girls team up for the last time this season in Elgin on the Friday, February 11 and the Pirates JV/Varsity teams will travel to Mabel, Minnesota to play Mabel-Canton on the Tuesday, February 15.