LYLE &045; The Lyle/Pacelli Athletics buckled in the waning moments of their

65-55 loss against Glenville-Emmons

Tuesday night.

The Athletics tied the game at 47 with less than five minutes to play, but collapsed under pressure and failed to win their second straight game.

“We need to get the ball into position and score,” Athletics’ head

coach Reid Olson said. “The effort was there, but we panicked.”

The first half was neck and neck. The Athletics held a small lead throughout most of the half, but the Wolverines always battled back.

Lyle/Pacelli entered halftime with a one-point lead of 32-31.

“We needed to be pounding the ball inside and being patient, but we just stopped doing that later in the game,” Olson said.

The Athletics started to falter early in the second half, losing

their lead and falling behind.

Lyle/Pacelli managed small spurts of momentum to rally, but could not gain a significant lead.

With less

than five minutes left to play, the game was tied at 47. The Wolverines rallied and gained a 57-49 lead over the Athletics. The Athletics started to make a comeback, but

kept taking risky shots and failing to gain the lead. With under a

minute to go, the Wolverines were up by three, and scored seven

unanswered points to deliver the Athletics the loss.

Jarrad Knutson led the Wolverines with 18 points and nine rebounds while Michael Greibrok added 16, but head coach Dan Fredrickson praised Luke Klingson and Justin Flattum for their strong play off the bench.

&8220;We got into some early foul trouble and had a couple of guys foul out,&8221; he said, but these guys stepped up and played a big game for us.&8221;

G-E’s defense held the Athletics to just 23 points in the second half while collecting 14 steals on the night.

The win improved the Wolverines to 7-0 on the season as they head into the Christmas break.