Heise’s Six Threes Lead Lake City to HVL Crown

Six-foot freshman Nathan Heise nailed six threes, five of them in the first half, in a 50-35 win over Goodhue for the overall Hiawatha Valley League title Saturday night. It was a packed house with chairs set up in each corner of the gym.

The game started with both teams digging in defensively.

It was fun to hear all the sneakers squeaking because that told you the players were moving their feet.

It took nearly three minutes before Heise picked up the first points of the game on a three-pointer. Then the teams seemed to trade buckets, but the Tigers were pulling away because they were hitting threes while the Wildcats were making two-point shots.

In fact, Lake City had just one two-point basket in the first half and seven threes. They added four more three point baskets in the second half. Goodhue finished the game with two three-pointers and they came very late in the contest.

The only Wildcat in double figures was 6-foot-4 senior Jacob McNamara with 11 points. Goodhue 6-foot-2 freshman Sam Opsahl had nine points and 6-foot-2 senior Ben Opsahl had eight points.

The Wildcats finished the game one for four from the free throw line and Lake City was 11 of 14.

Lake City's other freshman, 6-foot-2 Reid Gastner, had 11 points and 5-foot-10 junior Marc Kjos tallied three three-pointers and finished with 11 points.

Uncharacteristically, Goodhue had a number of turnovers in the game, in particular in the first half, and Lake City knew how to cash those in for points. The Tigers scored 12 points off turnovers in the first half and the Wildcats had two points off turnovers.

Goodhue was the Blue Division champion and Lake City the Gold Division champion of the Hiawatha Valley League. It was the third straight year that Lake City captured the title while playing Goodhue.