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RANDOLPH — Randolph’s fourgame winning streak came to an end Jan. 16 when Wausa came to town and handed the Cardinals a 66-51 loss. Earlier in the week, Randolph picked up home wins over Niobrara/ Verdigre (62-19) on Jan. 13 and Homer (67-46) on Jan. 15.
Wausa jumped on the Cardinals early, taking a 13-10 lead after the opening quarter and extending the advantage to 31-25 at halftime. Both teams heated up in the third quarter, but the Vikings still increased their lead by three. Wausa pulled away in the final period to seal the victory.
Logan Lienemann and Luke Harder led a balanced Randolph scoring effort with 11 points apiece. Ryan Engel added nine points, Adrian Samano scored eight and Brecken Shearer finished with six.
Against Homer, Randolph opened the game on an 8-0 run. Back-to-back 3-pointers from Lienemann made it 6-0 less than a minute into the game, and Engel then found Shearer on the block to extend the lead to 8-0.
Homer trimmed the deficit to 8-7, but Kody Junck answered with a basket in the paint to make it 107. Samano later finished a feed from Junck to push Randolph’s lead to 12-7 with 4:07 remaining in the first quarter.
The Knights briefly took a 15-14 lead late in the period, but Lienemann hit 3 of 4 free throws down the stretch to send Randolph into the first break with a 17-15 advantage.
Randolph outscored Homer 21-7 in the second quarter to take a 38-22 halftime lead. The Cardinals stretched the margin to 58-39 after three quarters and cruised to the win.
Lienemann paced Randolph with 26 points, while Samano added 19.
In the win over Niobrara/Verdigre, both teams struggled to find a rhythm early. Randolph led 10-6 after the first quarter, then limited Niobrara/Verdigre to three points in the second while scoring 16 to build a 26-9 halftime lead.
The Cardinals maintained control the rest of the way on the way to the 43-point win.
Lienemann led Randolph with 17 points. Engel scored 12, Samano added eight, Shearer had seven and Corbin Wattier finished with six, including a pair of 3-pointers.
Randolph was scheduled to host Bloomfield on Jan. 20 before another home date with Winnebago on Jan. 23.
Wausa(9-3) 13 18 22 13 - 66 Randolph (8-4) 10 15 19 7 - 51 RANDOLPH: Jaylen Junck 2 0-1 4; Logan Lienemann 1 9-9 11; Brecken Shearer 2 0-2 6; Ryan Engel 3 3-6 9; Adrian Samano 4 0-0 8; Kody Junck 1 0-0 2; Luke Harder 5 1-1 11. HOM (1-15) 15 7 17 7 - 46 RAN (8-4) 17 21 20 9 - 67 RANDOLPH:CorbinWattier01-21;Lienemann 9 4-8 26; Shearer 1 0-0 2; Payten Kuchta 1 0-0 2; Engel 0 3-6 3; Samano 8 3-4 19; K. Junck 1 0-0 2; Harder 3 6-6 12. N/V (0-13) 6 3 4 6 - 19 RAN (8-4) 10 16 29 7 - 62 RANDOLPH: J. Junck 1 1-4 4; Wattier 2 0-0 6; Lienemann 7 0-0 17; Shearer 3 1-2 7; Engel 6 0-0 12; Samano 4 0-0 8; Trindan Ziems 0 2-2 2; K. Junck 1 2-4 6.
