Boys fall short at St. Thomas More

After a series of lackluster performances that left Custer High School boys basketball team players, coaches and fans shaking their heads, the Wildcats bounced back in a big way last weekend, throttling the Hot Springs Bison and nearly upsetting the third ranked St. Thomas More Cavaliers.

The Wildcats started out slow against the Cavaliers, with head coach Larry Luitjens saying the team was sluggish on the defensive end. However, senior point guard Cody Martinz, who had a stellar shooting night, buried a three-pointer as time wound down in the second quarter, cutting the More lead to 13 and giving the team a huge boost as it went into halftime.

More had a strong first half largely on the back of Jacob Henderson, who had his way inside in the game, scoring 24 points on 12 of 19 shooting. However, Custer’s defense came out much stronger in the second half, and began to help the Wildcat offense chip away at the Cavalier lead.

“I think the big reason is we communicated better defensively in the second half,”â��Luitjens said.â��“In the second half, there wasn’t anybody who played poorly defensively.”

The Wildcats cut the lead all the way to two late in the game, before Martinz drove to the basket and hit a shot, but was called for a charge. Martinz eventually fouled out of the game.