Western Boone Jr. - Sr. High School

It's been a frustrating stretch for the Western Boone boys basketball team. Saturday night, the Stars hosted Hamilton Heights, fell behind early and couldn't come back in a 67-49 final. The loss was the fifth-straight for the Stars. "They have a different type of athleticism and speed from them," Western Boone head coach Dustin Oakley said. "We just talked about how in a way it gets us ready for next Friday, because Danville is kind of the same way. They are quick and shoot well. We made some good adjustments on defense, and got to the rim on offense, we just can't put it together for a full game." The Stars fell behind 9-0 and 14-2 in the opening minutes, before trailing 25-14 after one. From there, they were able to turn it up a little defensively and keep themselves in striking distance. They held the visitors to 10 points in the second quarter and 14 in the third, getting themselves within 43-36. Oakley said assistant coach Whit Keadle made some adjustments to the Stars' defense and it led to a better middle quarters. "We rebounded better, and we made some changes in our 2-3 zone," Oakley said. "The big thing was we got their shooters off the three-point line. We were really aggressive and made them put the ball on the floor, and I thought we contained as well as we could off the bounce. They hit a ton of shots in the fourth quarter, and they are tough team to guard for 32 minutes." The Huskies pulled away throughout the fourth quarter, only missing two shots over the final eight minutes. Tristyn Faulk led the Stars with 15 points and seven rebounds, with Marcus Fortner scoring 10. Carter Hanna and Luke Adkins both had eight with Drew Gott scoring seven points and grabbing six rebounds. Free throws again hurt the Stars as they tried to get back in the game. WeBo made just 6 of 18 free throws in the game, with the Huskies making eight of nine on the night. "It's crazy, because we are spending more time on free throws than we have since I have been here," Oakley said. "Maybe we should flip it, I don't know. There were some huge momentum swings in there. We were down 25-18, get fouled on a 3 and miss all three free throws. I think it's a mental thing. If we hit some early, then we are fine, if we don't, it seems like the whole team just misses them. But those are killers in games like this at home." The Stars host No. 2 Danville on Friday. "After next weekend, you look at our schedule and we have a chance to pick up a couple more wins," Oakley said. "Our kids just have to continue to trust the process. We are still young and learning to play at the varsity level. We're trying to get better this year, but also knowing we have a lot of this group next year too. We want to be sure that we are playing our best basketball come sectional time." Will Willems is the Sports Editor of the Lebanon Reporter. Follow him on Twitter @Will_Willems. January 12th On Friday night the Stars traveled to Frankfort for a conference matchup and lost 49-37. The Stars battled all night but struggled to put together scoring opportunities. Scoring for the Stars were Marcus Fortner 8, Gavin Hawkins 8, Quinn Westerfeld 7, Tristyn Faulk 6, Luke Adkins 4, and Phillip Talbot and Luke LaGrange with 2.