Kee boys basketball team opens season with 57-55 home triumph over Central Elkader on last-second buzzer beater
Game-high scoring leader ... Kee boys basketball senior Mat Gruber takes the ball strong to the basket in the Hawks’ 57-55 season-opening victory at home over Central Elkader Friday, December 4. Gruber scored a game-high 14 points and also grabbed four rebounds and recorded one each of steals and assists in the ballgame. Photo courtesy of the Kee High School Yearbook. View and find out how to purchase this photo and many more by clicking on the Photo Galleries link on this webpage.
The Kee boys basketball team opened its 2020-2021 season in thrilling fashion, taking its first game of the season right down to the final seconds - literally - to pull off a 57-55 comeback victory over Central Elkader at home Friday, December 4. The Hawks and Warriors were locked in a back-and-forth battle throughout the contest until Central nearly doubled up its Kee hosts in third quarter scoring, but the Hawks rallied back to return that favor in the fourth quarter, overcoming a near double-digit deficit to come away with the two-point triumph on a tie-breaking lay-up by junior Tyson Cota as the final buzzer sounded.
“I give Central a lot of credit,” Kee boys basketball coach Pat Wagner said. “They not only came out and shot well, they really hustled. We had a seven-point lead midway through the second quarter and then hit a long dry spell. The speed of the game went up considerably in the fourth quarter and that seemed to favor us. Give our guys a lot of credit. We were down eight with about six minutes to go and battled back. The game is 32 minutes long and we used every one of them.”
The Hawks were scheduled to host Postville Tuesday, December 8 before playing at Turkey Valley Friday, December 11 and then at New Hampton Saturday, December 12. Kee will then host MFL/MarMac Tuesday, December 15 and North Fayette Valley Friday, December 18 before playing North Butler at Upper Iowa University in Fayette Saturday, December 19.
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