Early success by Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn in a boys' Class 1A preliminary round game proved to be unsustainable for the long haul. As the Hawks began relying too much on outside shooting, Sibley-Ocheyedan gained momentum that carried them to a 55-39 win on Feb. 9 at Sibley.

H-M-S jumped out to a 9-4 lead, lost it and then regrouped to go ahead 15-13 at the end of the first quarter. S-O went in front with an 11-0 run to begin the second quarter. The Hawks were limited to four points in the quarter and trailed 28-19 at the break.

"We knocked down five threes which was nice for us, but it's also like fool's gold," said Hawk coach Naet Hoaglund. "Sometimes when you knock down a bunch of threes you become too reliant on those kinds of shots and stop attacking and looking inside. That's exactly what happened to us. We became stagnant offensively and settled for too many outside shots in the second quarter."

The teams traded three-pointers to open the second half, and S-O then began to extend their lead. The Hawks trailed by 17 points to start the fourth quarter and could not gain any ground on the Generals.

"S-O just found their rhythm in the third quarter and that momentum was hard to stop," Hoaglund acknowledged. "I thought our guys played and competed hard. I thought we played with focus and desire. It just wasn't in the cards for us."

MIKE PETERSEN/SENTINEL-NEWS

Isaac Schierholz releases a shot attempt in the preliminary round game against Sibley-Ocheyedan.

Isaac Schierholz and Lawton Schiphoff led H-M-S with 19 and 13 points. George Vargas scored four points and Jayden Leth added three.

Vargas also contributed 12 rebounds; Schierholz had eight rebounds and two assists; Leth had six rebounds and three assists; Zac Pearson added two rebounds and two assists; and Josh Cruz had two assists.

Ben Byers and Sam Schnepf both scored 15 points to lead S-O.

H-M-S finishes the 2023-24 season with a record of 0-22. A recap of the season will be featured in a future edition.