HURON — The Huron Tigers had a four-game win streak snapped Friday as the Watertown Arrows came into the Huron Arena and came away with a 67-56 victory, adding emphasis to a 59-35 victory over the Tigers on Jan. 23 in Watertown.

Both clubs come out of the game with 11-7 records.

The Tigers came out of the gate determined, getting a defensive stop to open the game and then getting the ball to Blake Ellwein at the post. Ellwein powered up a basket for the first points of the game.

Watertown’s Dylon Rawdon attacked the hoop and earned a pair of foul shots, hitting both. Gainey responded with a deep three from the top of the key. The next possession, Ellwein nailed a three to give the Tigers an 8-2 lead.

Rawdon then hung in the lane for a layup. The Arrows then broke the press a pair of times, hitting Caden Beauchamp for a pair of layups to tie the game at 8-8.

Ellwein hit one of two charity shots and then got a layup after a steal to quickly push the Tigers out to 11-8.

Will Engstrom came off the Arrow bench to drive in for a basket. Ellwein responded with a pair of free throws.

Engstrom then drove and was fouled, but missed the extra show, leaving the score 13-12 in favor of the home squad.

Both teams went scoreless for nearly three minutes at that point before another layup on the back end of the Huron press for Beauchamp opened a floodgate to end the quarter.

Ellwein drove in for a layup, but Watertown’s Kohen Kranz was hit on a backdoor layup. Ellwein stepped back for three - his 15th point of the first quarter, but Rawdon pulled up for a three just as the quarter ended to give Watertown a 19-18 lead at the end of one.

Rawdon was tough in the first quarter, but he was downright on fire in the second. He opened the period with a three.

Gavin Moeding nailed a layup off a pass from Ellwein to make it 22-20 Watertown.

Jake Olson cut to the hoop for a layup and Rawdon nailed a fadeaway jumper to push it out to 26-20.

Carsen Evans came off the Tiger bench to hit a corner three and half the lead, but Olson and Rawdon each nailed a three.

Ellwein drove in and made a finger roll but Rawdon answered with a three at the top of the key with two Tiger defenders in his face.

Trace Wenz was able to get a put back for Huron, but the Tigers went into the halftime break trailing 35-27.

The Tigers came out of the halftime break pushing the ball inside, and Ellwein hit four free throws after being fouled twice down low to close the gap to 35-31 Watertown.

Huron got a three from Anderson Porisch off a screen by Ellwin and then Porisch grabbed an offensive rebound and got a put back to put Huron in the lead 36-35.

Engstrom connected for a three for Watertown, but Ellwein answered with a coast-to-coast layup to knot the score 38-38.

After a game played at Huron’s pace the first half of the third quarter, Watertown pushed the pace the rest of the period, starting with a hard drive and a pair of free throws for Rawdon, then a free throw for Engstrom to make it 41-38 Watertown.

Gainey hit a scoop shot to bring the Tigers back within one, but Olson and Rawdon combined for three free throws and Beauchamp snuck behind the Tiger defense for an easy deuce.

Kranz hit a three from the top of the key for Watertown with time running out in the period to put the exclamation point on an 11-2 run to close out the quarter, heading to the fourth with the momentum and a 49-40 lead.

Rawdon floated in a jumper to open the fourth, and Gainey answered with a wide-open three for Huron to make it 51-43.

Kranz nailed another three, but Ellwein answered with a hoop and the harm to get the traditional three-point play. He would hit one of two free throws the next trip down to bring Huron within 54-47.

Rawdon hit a fadeaway jumper and Ellwein answered with another pair of free throws before Gainey ripped away a steal and made a layup to bring the Tigers within 56-51 with just under four minutes remaining in the game.

Unfortunately, that’s as close as the Tigers would get. Engstrom and Rawdon hit for six points across Watertown’s next two possessons, pushing the lead out to 62-53.

The Arrows nailed their free throws at the end to make it a 67-56 victory.

Huron coach Tim Buddenhagen was pleased with how his team came out of the half, but wanted to see more movement offensively from his club.

“Unforced turnovers really hurt us. I thought we made good adjustments coming out of halftime,” Buddenhagen said.
“We let them get penetration into the lane and then they’d find someone off that. (Rawdon) made some nice shots that really hurt us.”

Watertown got 30 from Rawdon. Engstrom hit for 12 off the bench and Beauchamp made five layups for 10 points.

Jake Olson grabbed six rebounds to pace the Arrows.

Ellwein scored a game-high 32 for the Tigers. Gainey added 10 points. Porisch grabbed a game-high seven rebounds for Huron.

Buddenhagen hopes his team can use this game as fuel for the final stretch and the postseason.

“Hopefully, they can bottle up this feeling and bring it the rest of the way to get ready for the SoDak 16,” Buddenhagen reflected. “We’re going to be playing a really good team in the postseason, so we need to be ready for that.”

The Tigers host O’Gorman on Tuesday.

Watertown         19 35 49 67
Huron         18 27 40 56

Watertown (11-7): Dylon Rawdon 8 10-11 30, Caden Beauchamp 5 0-0 10, Kohen Kranz 3 0-0 8, Will Engstrom 4 2-5 12, Jake Olson 2 2-2 7. Totals: 23 14-18 67.

Huron (11-7): Trace Wenz 1 0-0 2, Gavin Moeding 1 0-2 2, CJ Gainey 4 0-0 10, Blake Ellwein 9 12-15 32, Anderson Porisch 3 0-0 7, Carsen Evans 1 0-0 3. Totals: 19 12-17 56.

FG: W - 22/43 51%; H - 19/43 44%. 3-pt FG: W 9/20 (Rawdon 4, Engstrom 2, JOlson); H 6/17 (Gainey 2, Ellwein 2, Porisch, Evans). Rebounds: W 23 (JOlson 6), H 26 (Porisch 7). Steals: W 6 (Beauchamp, JOlson 2), H 7 (Gainey 4). Turnovers: W 11, H 12. Fouls: W 15, H 19 (Moeding out).