By Hub City Times staff

AUBURNDALE – The Auburndale boys basketball team lost for just the second time this season, when they dropped a 52-47 decision to the Edgar Wildcats, on Feb. 4 at Auburndale High School.

“Certainly a big win on the road against a really, really good team,” Edgar Head Coach Dave Huss said afterward. “Just really proud of the effort of all of our guys. It takes everybody. I thought, for the most part, we contested shots. They got a few easy ones, but I thought we contested their shooting. We kept the ball out of the paint for the majority of the night. We knew that our on-ball defense was going to be important. There weren’t a lot of clean looks for their guys. And then turnovers – we won the turnover battle. And, I thought we took care of the ball.”

Edgar jumped out to an eight-point lead, but the Apaches tied the game at 28 at halftime, thanks to a buzzer-beater by Cooper Weinfurter in the lane as the horn sounded.

That followed a big run by Auburndale that had given the Apaches the lead. Auburndale kept the game close throughout most of the second half as well.

The Wildcats took a seven-point lead at the 7:00 mark, but the Apaches pulled to within one just a few minutes later. A scoring drought that lasted more than two minutes did them in, however, and Edgar was able to hang on for the win, thanks in large part to some clutch free throw shooting down the stretch by Kaleb Hafferman and Kyle Brewster.

Drew Guden led the Wildcats with 15 points, including 4-for-4 from the foul line. Austin Dahlke added 13 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Brewster scored 12 points. Hafferman added 10.

The 47 points scored by the Apaches were 22 below their per-game average of 69 for the season.

Auburndale Head Coach Chad Weinfurter said of the Edgar Wildcats, “They match up with us really well. They’ve got some tremendous athletes on the perimeter that are really good defensive players, and they run some really good stuff on offense. They’re very balanced in scoring. They play really good defense – maybe one of the best defensive teams in the area, if not the best.”

Fletcher Raab led the Apaches in scoring with 17 points. Weinfurter added 11, nine points below his per-game average for the season. Schuyler Gilhausen had 10 points – nine of those off three 3-point baskets. The Apaches got 47 points from just four players. The Wildcats held four other players scoreless.

Auburndale suffered their first loss since losing to the Stratford Tigers, 61-34, on Jan. 3. The Apaches have now split their season series with Edgar the past three years. On Dec. 17, Auburndale pulled out a 66-51 win over the Wildcats in triple overtime.

The win gave Edgar an overall record of 12-3, and an 8-3 mark in the South Division of the Marawood Conference. Auburndale dropped to 15-2 overall and 10-2 in conference play. The Auburndale loss should give the Stratford Tigers another conference championship, even if the Apaches win the rematch between the two teams on Feb. 21 at Auburndale High School.