Hoping to turn things around in the new year, Lone Tree ended this year with a loss to WACO, 72-29, on December 20.

The Warriors lead the Southeast Iowa Super Conference with a perfect 8-0 record and with this loss the Lions fall to 1-5 in conference play.

“We did a good job of handling their pressure early,” Lone Tree head coach Tom Squiers said. “And then we lost focus and turned the ball over.”

WACO’s leading scorer on the night was junior Hunter Hughes with 28 points. Hughes also had seven steals and six rebounds. 

The game started out rough for Lone Tree. The Lions only managed to score eight points in the first quarter while Waco scored 20. It snowballed from there.

In the second quarter Lone Tree was outscored 26-8 and went into halftime trailing by 30 points. 

Being down by that many points is enough of a reason to take the wind out of any team’s sails, but coach Squiers wants to see his team show some better resilience in future games.

“I was disappointed in our effort and attitude in the second half. Going forward we need to get mentally tougher,” Squiers said about his team. 

The Lions managed to score double digits in the fourth quarter, 11 points, but by then the game was firmly out of reach. 

With a break in play coming up for the holidays the Lions hope this time off will help them regroup. When they return from their break Lone Tree has a great chance to get their first win.

Lone Tree (3-7) will start the new year on the road when they face off against conference opponent Wapello (2-6) on January 3. 

Then in their second consecutive road game of the week they will battle the English Valleys Bears (1-8) on January 5.