FP 7th Grade Boys Basketball Placed 3rd in the Dubois County Tourney In the first game of the tournament, the 7th Grade Boys Basketball team played Southridge for the second time this season. With the first game not going so well for the Rangers, FP looked to bounce back to get the Raiders back. With a 9am start, the Rangers were ready to battle. The Rangers started their first game with a 7-4 lead in the first quarter but then the Raiders went on an 11-0 run to make the score 15-7 at the end of the first in the Raiders favor. The Rangers were able to score more points in the second quarter but so were the Raiders. The Rangers were down 20-29 going into halftime with 6 different Rangers in the scoring column. Coach Hochgesang preached for his team to have a good third quarter because in every game before this, the team had not performed well in the 3rd. FP put up 15 points in the third quarter to SR's 11 points to cut their lead to 5. With a defensive battle in the fourth quarter, it came down to the very last second. With the Rangers down 6 points with 30 seconds left, the Rangers never gave up. FP was able to cut the lead to 3 and sent a Raider to the line. Luckily for the Rangers, the Raider player missed both free throws to give the Rangers a chance. With 1.3 seconds left on the clock, the Rangers had the ball on their side of the court. Southridge called a timeout, which gave Coach Hochgesang a chance to draw up a play. Coach got the shot he wanted for the most part, but the shot hit the front of the rim and bounced out. The Rangers had 9 turnovers on the game and shot 9/15 from the free throw line. FP also had 7 guys score in this game, but the Rangers came up just short losing 44-47 to the tournament champions Southridge. Scoring vs. Southridge: Michael Christmas : 16 points (2/5 FT's) Blake Morrison : 9 points (2/2 FT's) Cash Lueken : 6 points (4/6 FT's) Hunter Lange : 5 points (one 3-pointer) Cason Lubbehusen : 3 points (one 3-pointer) Declan Nord : 3 points (1/2 FT's) Zander Reyling-Schwartz : 2 points The 7th Grade Boys Basketball team then played Northeast Dubois for the 3rd place game. With a sloppy start to the game, the Rangers were able to score 10 and 9 points in the first half but the Jeeps were able to score 14 and 9 points in the first half. After some adjustments on both ends, the Rangers picked up the defense and forced more turnovers. The Rangers came out in the third quarter and scored 8 points to Dubois' 5 points. Going into the fourth quarter, FP was still down 1 27-28. The 7th Grade Rangers came out in the fourth quarter and played great defense and only allowed Dubois to score 4 points. FP also went to the free throw line 10 times in the fourth quarter and went 6/10. The Rangers ended up winning this game by 6, 38-32. FP had 12 turnovers this game and shot 7/13 from the free throw line. The team was very excited to get a win and hopefully boost their confidence for the New Year! Scoring vs Northeast Dubois : Michael Christmas : 15 points (3/5 FT's) Blake Morrison : 8 points (1/2 FT's) Cash Lueken : 6 points Hunter Lange : 6 points (2/4 FT's) Jax Jacob : 3 points (one 3-pointer) Cason Lubbehusen : 1 point (1/2 FT's) This 7th Grade group looks to continue to get better as the season will pick up and end quickly once January starts. The Rangers are back in action at Home vs Washington on Monday, January 5th! Come support these hard working boys!