Galena picks up huge win

Even though it was deja vu all over again when the Galena High boys basketball team had to play without Derek Lorenzen for virtually the entire first half, The Grizzlies still came away with a big win for their first victory of the season.

Galena defeated Bay Area power Archbishop Mitty 60-53 on Saturday on the road. The Grizzlies began the season with two losses before picking up a win that had begun the year 2-0 and was coming off a 10-point win over Bay Area power Skyline.

Lorenzen picked up two quick fouls in the first minute of the game and sat out the rest of the first half. It was the same scenario as on Friday when Lorenzen picked up two quick fouls and sat out virtually the entire first half in a loss at St. Francis.

Even without Lorenzen, Galena took a 17-9 lead after one quarter and led 26-23 at halftime. With Lorenzen back in the lineup, Galena took control of the game in the third quarter, taking a 44-34 lead after three periods.

"We've been really good on first and thirds and really bad on fourths in the first three games we've played," said Galena coach Tom Maurer about his team's play by quarters. "Those are issues we obviously have to address."

But Maurer was pleased with his team's overall play against Archbishop Mitty. "We truly found ourselves," he said.

Lorenzen scored all 23 of his points in the second half. Galena was also helped by the insertion of Luke Leonard into the starting lineup, who Maurer said, "did an outstanding job filling inside."

Another encouraging sign was Galena continued to feed the ball to freshman Luke Babbitt, which is something it didn't do against St. Francis. Babbitt scored 13 points in the first half against St. Francis, but didn't score in the second half.

Against Archbishop Mitty, Babbitt scored 18 points and was 8-for-12 from the foul line. "They went to him a lot and he did an outstanding job," Maurer said.

GALENA GIRLS 2-1

The Galena girls basketball team went 2-1 during a three-day trip to Las Vegas. After losing to Southern 4A power Centennial 79-39 on Thursday, The Grizzlies came back to beat Silverado 71-32 and Desert Pines 77-52.

Galena trailed by just five points with one minute left in the first half against Centennial before Centennial went on to take a 13-point halftime lead and break the game open in the second half.

"We played really well for a half," Galena coach Karen Friel said. "Boy you let down they just blow your doors off."

Against Desert Pines, Caitlin Anderson scored 27 points. "She had a great game," Friel said.

Micheon Aguilar added 11 points. Anderson and Dominic Pavich each scored 11 points against Silverado.