Baraboo rallies past Sauk Prairie’s boys

This one really stung. Sauk Prairie’s boys basketball team led visiting Reedsburg most of the game on Jan. 30. The Beavers rallied late, though, and knocked off the Eagles, 67-63. Sauk Prairie fell to 9-8 overall and 3-5 in the Badger Small Conference. Reedsburg improved to 8-9, 3-5. Jake Buckles led the Eagles with 14 points, while Nicholas Keyser added 12. Otis Andres and Boden Breunig both had 11. “This was a tough one,” Eagles coach Sean McGann said. “To lead almost the entire game and lose it at the end is very frustrating.” Reedsburg raced to a 7-0 lead just 90 seconds into the game. But the host Eagles embarked on a 26-6 run to take a 26-13 lead. At halftime, Sauk Prairie held a 36-25 advantage. Reedsburg then opened the second half on a 20-10 run, closed within 46-45 with 12 minutes left and set up a thrilling finish. The Eagles pushed their lead back to 52-45 and still led 59-53 with 5 minutes left. The Beavers finished the game on a 14-4 run, though, to rally for the win. With the game knotted, 61-61, Sauk Prairie’s Casey Brickl hit two free throws with 3:28 left to put the Eagles back in front. But Sauk Prairie didn’t score again and Reedsburg finished the game on a 6-0 burst to pull away. In the second half alone, Sauk Prairie went 0-of-10 from 3-point land, while Reedsburg was 9-of-12. “Basketball is very much a make or miss game,” McGann said. “But it’s a good reminder to us that we can’t just rely on making shots to win games. We need to play incredible defense and find different ways to score.” • On deck: Sauk Prairie was at McFarland Tuesday, then hosts Mount Horeb Friday at 5:45 p.m. The Eagles are then at River Valley Monday at 7:30 p.m. “For us, we aren’t going to win the league, so all we need to focus on is trying to put our best product on the floor at all times and get better every day,” McGann said.