The Pirates beat the River Ridge Wildcats in a close, high scoring home thriller, by a score of 70-62. The game took place on Saturday, Feb. 9, where the Pirates were able to take revenge from an early season loss to the Wildcats.

Leading the way for the Pirates was freshman sensation Ethan Hefel with a career high 17 points. Other big scorers for the pirates were seniors Cody Allendorf and Conner Einsweiler both chipped in 16.

The game started very quick with an impressive 43 point 1st quarter with the Wildcats ahead by three 23-20. The second quarter was an immense change of pace with the Pirates unable to even score double digits.

Heading down to the final seconds of the second quarter the Pirates were down by 10 hoping for a spark, and boy did they get one. It was in the form of a buzzer beating three from the corner by senior Jack Einsweiler. That shot closed the gap to only seven, but the Pirates had a lot of work to do if they were to pull off an upset.

Thanks to the momentum boost supplied by Einsweiler the Pirates took the floor with intensity after halftime, and were hungry to defend their court. From the start of the third the Pirates put the pedal to the metal and didn’t let off the gas.

The Pirates had a solid third quarter leaving the Wildcat lead at one point. The Pirates made a bucket in their opening possession of the fourth quarter and never looked back. They held the lead for the rest of the game and took down the higher ranked Wildcats by eight points.

It was a great win for the team, and they look forward to continuing their success as they close out the regular season. The Pirates have only three games left until regionals, and all of their opponents are teams that they have previously beaten this season. Their next game is Senior Night at home against the Scales Mound Hornets, the game will take place on Tuesday, Feb. 12.