Chickasaw boys hold off Huskies for first NEIC win
Before the season started, New Hampton boys basketball coach Chad Sweitzer made a pronouncement — Oelwein’s Northeast Iowa Conference losing skid that stretches back to 2012 will come to an end this year.
“I just don’t want it to be against us,” Sweitzer said at the time.
So there was a reason the New Hampton coach let out a huge sigh of relief as the final horn sounded Friday night.
The Chickasaws had survived — thanks to a fast start and a gritty finish — and come away with a 50-48 victory over a Huskies’ team that simply refused to go away.
“They’re a better team than their record and I still think they’re going to get some wins in our conference,” Sweitzer said after his team improved to 6-5 with its first NEIC win in five outings. “Thankfully, it wasn’t tonight.”
But it was definitely in doubt right to the end, despite the fact that New Hampton jumped out to a 14-5 lead, thanks to four 3-pointers from Jake Zwanziger, in the game’s first five minutes.
The rest of the story may be found in the Jan. 9 Tribune.