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LYLE – The Lyle-Pacelli boys basketball team had their first win within reach in the second half, but things took a turn for the worse as they lost to Grenada-Huntley-East-Chain-Martin Luther-Truman 68-45 in Lyle Monday.

The Athletics rallied back from a 37-27 second half deficit to take a 40-38 lead when freshman Grady Meyer hit a three-pointer to tie the game and he nailed two free throws to give LP an edge with 9:44 left in the game.

L-P was tied at 41 after James Schulte hit a free throw with 7:57 left, but Eli Jensen caught fire from behind the three-point line as the Jaguars (4-6 overall) finished the game on a 25-3 run to put the game away in the late minutes.

“I felt like we played well and we got up, but we just don’t know how to finish a game. We’re young and we’re trying to figure out things,” L-P head coach Carl Truckenmiller said. “Tonight we were physical, we were hustling, but then we fell apart. But we’re getting better.”

Jensen finished with 30 points for the Jaguars and Jackson Madsen added 23 points.

“We did some good things and then we hit a wall and we didn’t know where (Jensen) was. You can’t lose shooters like that,” Truckenmiller said.

Sophomore Hunter Wollenburg led L-P (0-8 overall) with 19 points.

GHECMLT 28  40  –  68

Lyle-Pacelli 25  20  –  45

L-P scoring: Hunter Wollenberg, 19; Landon Meyer, 9; Grady Meyer, 5; James Schulte, 4; Noah Medgaarden, 3; Yong Achuoth, 3; Leland Hicks, 2