Fighting a flu bug was just as important as the play on the court for Lyle/Pacelli Tuesday night in its first Southeast Conference West Division game of the season.

Wednesday, December 22, 1999

Fighting a flu bug was just as important as the play on the court for Lyle/Pacelli Tuesday night in its first Southeast Conference West Division game of the season.

L/P just did not have enough fire power, with Philip Halbach home sick and Josh Kunze not 100 percent, against the LeRoy-Ostrander Cardinals.

The ill-fated turn resulted in a 57-53 win for L-O, the initial triumph for L-O’s first-year coach Russ Foster.

"We have a young squad with two freshman starting," Foster said. "We don’t know what is going to happen from game to game.

"We have been in a number of games that we couldn’t pull out down the stretch, so it was nice to win tonight. I think they really missed Halbach. We also had two players who didn’t play, our starting center Matt Fechner and our sixth man Brandon Vreeman. Those losses probably don’t compare to being without Halbach."

In the early going it looked like L/P would only need one big man to take care of business.

Junior post player Matt Row hit his first three shots of the game leading the way to a 16-7 first quarter lead for L/P. Danny Greibrok, starting in place of Halbach, also had a hot hand, hitting his first two shots of the game, including a trey.

L-O then got right back into the game with a 7-0 run at the start of the second quarter to make it 16-14.

It was freshman post player Chad Orum starting it off with a basket inside. Then, senior guard Justin Stevens hit a three-pointer.

Orum and Stevens both had big nights. Orum scored 19 and Stevens 18. Stevens threw in four bombs in the game.

Things got worse for the home team when Row picked up two quick fouls giving him three for the game.

He sat out the last six minutes of the half.

But the tide momentarily turned in the favor of L/P, when it hit three straight treys three times down the court. Dean DeBoer hit the first one and Kunze the next two. On the other end Orum was working inside for two buckets. By the end of the half, L/P led 28-24.

In the third quarter, L-O went up five, 36-31, when Orum made one of two free throws. Moments earlier he made a great reverse tip.

"We knew coming in they had some good athletes," L/P coach Gary Erlandson said. "Orum looked like one on the football field."

L/P then battled back to within one, 39-38, when Kunze scored on a reverse drive at the end of the quarter. He was fouled on the play, but he missed the free throw. L/P was 10-of-20 from the line while L-O was 17-of-31.

With about two minutes remaining, Row hit a turnaround bank shot to pull L/P within one, 50-49.

L-O then missed two shots on their possession, but Orum then made a big block of a Greibrok shot, leading to a fast break by L-O.

Row picked up his fifth foul when freshman Ben Adams went to the bucket. Adams missed both free throws, but L/P then turned the ball over.

Orum was fouled and, setting an example for his classmate, calmly sank his two throws with 43 seconds remaining.

Jason Helgeson once again got L/P within one with a hop-and-pop drive with 40 seconds remaining.

Kunze then fouled Stevens on the ensuing in-bounds play.

Stevens made both his free throws.

L/P turned the ball over, and Adams was fouled.

This time he hit his free throws.

That put L-O two scores up, 56-51. L/P then missed a couple of treys, Stevens hit a free throw and Kunze scored on a last-second put-back.

Both squads are off for the holidays. L/P (3-5, 0-1) returns to action at NRHEG on the Jan. 4. L-O (1-6, 1-0) is at Glenville-Emmons on that date.

LeRoy-Ostrander (57)

Patrick Utz 3, Chad Orum 19, Ben Adams 4, Justin Stevens 18, Scott Grass 13.

Lyle/Pacelli (53)

Dean DeBoer 7, Danny Greibrok 7, Jason Helgeson 8, Seth Pfeil 2, Matt Row 12, Josh Kunze 2, Brandon Johnson 2.