Heights boys drop two

It was a tough week for Wisconsin Heights’ boys basketball team. Belleville defeated the Vanguards, 72-42, on Feb. 3. Cambridge then toppled Heights, 91-62, on Feb. 7. Heights is now 6-11 overall and 1-5 in the Capitol South Conference. Here’s a recap of the Vanguards’ week: • Belleville 72, Wisconsin Heights 42 — Reed Adler had 15 points and three assists in a losing effort for the Vanguards. Mike Fancsali had six rebounds, while Brayden Van Riper had three assists, three steals and two blocks. “We played very lethargic throughout this game,” Heights coach Nolan Krentz said. “Belleville got after us defensively on both makes and misses and we struggled to handle their pressure.” Despite Belleville’s tenacity, Heights trailed 30-21 at halftime and felt it could make a run. Instead, Belleville continued to pull away. “This was definitely a disappointing performance for us, as we had played quite well the previous week in coming back to beat Parkview and being very competitive with New Glarus on the road,” Krentz said. “We never were able to recover from our slow start and Belleville outplayed us throughout the entire game. We are a much better team that what we showed and I expect us to be much more competitive the next time we see Belleville in a couple weeks.” • Cambridge 91, Wisconsin Heights 62 — Reed Adler had 23 points and six rebounds, and Mike Fancsali added 12 points, but it wasn’t enough for the Vanguards. “Despite the score in this game, I thought we were much more competitive against Cambridge than we were against Belleville earlier in the week,” Krentz said. Brayden Van Riper added six rebounds, two blocks and a steal, while Ethan Myers also had a steal. Heights shot 70.0% from the floor in the first half (14-of-20) and 63.4% for the game (26-of-41), but turned the ball over 23 times. “We had our best performance offensively from the field,” Krentz said. “Cambridge used a run and jump press as well as a half court scramble and turnovers cost us in this one.  When we did handle their pressure, we got high quality looks inside, but unfortunately, we finished with 23 turnovers for the game which led to many easy baskets for Cambridge.” Krentz was thrilled with the play of Adler, who shined offensively, and guarded Cambridge standout Matt Buckman. “I thought Reed Adler had a terrific game for us,” Kremtz said. “We wanted to make their other players beat us and they had several others with big performances in this one. Their speed on both ends of the court gave us fits as they aggressively attacked the rim on offense and applied pressure on every possession defensively.   “They are on top of our conference for a reason and are one of the best teams in all of Division 4. It would not surprise me at all to see them playing in the Kohl Center in March. I was very pleased with our effort in this game and hopefully that continues moving forward the rest of the season.”