Pirates win two on the road to finish regular season

PIRATES WIN TWO ON THE ROAD TO CLOSE OUT SEASON

By Gary Simmons, Sr.
MABEL - The Postville Pirates traveled north to Minnesota for another border battle in a non-conference tilt last Tuesday (February 15th) night. The Mabel-Canton Cougars (4-15 overall) hosted the Pirates (5-6, 6-14) in what looked to be, record wise, a close match-up. The Pirates on the strength of strong performances in the second and fourth quarters beat the Cougars 46-34.

The first quarter was played close all the way with the Cougars taking a two point advantage into the second quarter leading 12-10. In the second quarter Postville scorched the nets for 18 points and the defense held Mabel-Canton to 10 points to take a 28-22 halftime lead.

In the third quarter both teams had a hard time finding the basket as the defenses tighten up for both teams. The Cougars scored 7 points to Postville's 5 points as Mabel-Canton cut the lead to four points entering the final quarter.

The Pirates found the basket and the defense held the Cougars to their lowest point production quarter of the game. Postville outscored Mabel-Canton 13 to 5 to win the contest by 12 points, 46-34.

The Pirates Aandi Deering led the team in scoring with 16 points and teammate Andy Livingood finished in double figures with 10 points. Matt Moore and Darren Kraus each scored 7 points for the Pirates and Nick Zieman rounded out the scoring with six points on the night.

Postville hit 52% from inside the arch on 13 of 52 shooting and 25% from beyond the arch hitting 4 three pointers out of 16 attempts. The Cougars hit 61% on 11 of 18 shooting from two point range and 25% on 3 of 12 shooting from beyond the arch.

The non-conference game was the third contest of the season with Minnesota teams from the Southeast League. Postville travels to Lansing for the final contest of the season Thursday (February 17th).

LANSING - The Postville Pirates won the first contest against Upper Iowa Conference foe Kee High 55-44 on their home court. Kee High (1-8, 9-11) wanted to return the favor as they hosted the Pirates last Thursday (February 17th) night. A contest that played closer than the final outcome gave Postville its third win in their last four games beating the Hawks by 10 points, 44-34.

It was a hot shooting night for the Pirates from inside the arch as they hit 19 of 30 shoots for 63%. The long range shooting hurt as the Pirates hit 6% on 1 of 18 shooting from three point range.

The first quarter resulted in a see-saw battle with Postville winding up on top 13-10. The second quarter Postville put 11 points on the board while holding the Hawks to just 4 points.

The third quarter has been a strong quarter for the Pirates most of the year and last Thursday was no different as they collected 18 points to Kee High's 10 points to take a 18 point lead into the third quarter with the score 42-24.

Kee High didn't quit and played tough defense holding Postville to just 2 points and scoring 10 on the offense end of the court. But the comeback fell short as time expired giving the Pirates a 10 point regular season ending victory 44-34.

The Pirates were led by Aandi Deering with 22 points and Matt Moore tossed in 8 points. Darren Kraus added 7 points, hitting the only three point shot of the night, while Chris Irvine collected 4 points and Andy Livingood finished the scoring with three points in the contest.

Postville will travel to Elkader to play Central in a District 6 match-up on Monday (February 21st). The winner of that contest will face Edgewood-Colesburg who has a bye in the first round. The Pirates have won 6 out of their last 10 contest, all close contest, and seem to be peaking at the right time.