Kyle Wolf scores 15 in loss

By Erik Buchinger

New London was defeated by top-ranked Xavier 97-77 on the road Friday, Jan. 26.

The Bulldogs dropped to 10-6 overall and 6-3 in the Bay Conference for a tie for second place, while Xavier improved to 15-0 this season.

“They’re a really good basketball team, but that being said, we obviously didn’t play as well as we wanted to,” New London head coach Kurt Schommer said. “Our emphasis was on taking care of the basketball, and we didn’t do a good enough job of that in the first half and that’s where it got away from us.”

Kyle Wolf led New London with 15 points with four 3-pointers and five assists.

Xavier scored the game’s first five points and jumped out to a 10-3 lead early. The Bulldogs never led in the game.

The Hawks shot 55 percent from the floor and knocked down 15 3-pointers.

“They shoot the ball well,” Schommer said. “They understand where each other are going to be on the floor, and they play good defense.”

The Bulldogs went into halftime trailing 49-33.

“We were down 16 at the half with 15 turnovers, so that’s really hard to deal with and battle back from because they do such a good job of converting,” Schommer said.

The Bulldogs trailed by a significant margin throughout the second half but went on a bit of a run late in the game.

“We stopped turning the ball over and giving them easy shots, and then we got into the paint a little bit,” Schommer said. “We had a little inside out action, which is what we wanted to do the whole game.”

Brady Rodgers scored 14 points with six rebounds, and Will Wohlt added 13 points.

Logan Locy scored all 12 of his points in the first half, and Garret Locy finished with nine points and nine assists.

“I’m proud of my guys,” Schommer said. “They played hard, and I told them before the game is not going to define our season good or bad, so we’ve got another game next week we’re looking forward to.”

New London’s next game will be at Menasha on Thursday, Feb. 1.

“We’re going to just put this one behind us, learn from our mistakes with taking care of the basketball a little more, and we’ve got to box out a little bit better,” Schommer said. “Those things are very controllable, so we’ll make our adjustments and we’re ready for some more conference games.”