Some areas improved for the Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn boys’ basketball team in their War Eagle Conference game at Akron-Westfield. But the Hawks continued to struggle offensively during the 66-20 loss on Dec. 12.

The Hawks were limited to nine points in the first half while Akron-Westfield scored 36 in the opening two quarters. H-M-S was outscored 30-11 in the second half.

Jayden Leth’s seven points led H-M-S, while Bradley Van Beek scored five, Lawton Schiphoff scored four, and Alex Billings and Josh Cruz added two points. H-M-S made just 8-of-41 shots from the floor.

“I was much more pleased with our ball security. We only turned the ball over 11 times and were able to get more shots off,” Hawk coach Naet Hoaglund noted. “We really struggle putting the ball in the hole right now. We haven’t been able to get into the paint or score from the post like we need to, so that forces us to settle a little bit from the outside which we haven’t been hitting from.”

The Westerners, led by Jackson Marnach with 16 points, did much of their scoring in the paint.

“I thought A-W really took advantage of their size advantage where they were able to score down low,” Hoaglund said. “We need to continue working on the defensive side of things to make teams work a little harder for their scores, and look for ways to be more efficient on the offensive end to make some of these games a little more competitive.”

Rebounding leaders were George Vargas and Cruz with four, and Kolby Douma, Leth and Van Beek with three. Leth also had two steals.

The Hawks then lost to Gehlen Catholic, 74-34, on Dec. 15. The Jays took an 18-8 lead in the first quarter and outscored H-M-S by a 27-2 margin to build a 45-10 halftime lead. The Hawks scored 24 points in the second half.

No team or individual stats were posted as of press deadline.

The Hawks fell to 0-7 overall and 0-2 in conference play. They resume their post-holiday schedule on Jan. 5 at Harris-Lake Park.