Royals fall at Cassville before losing at home to North Crawford on overtime buzzer-beater

By Derick Kelly

The Seneca Royals boys basketball team traveled to Cassville on Tuesday, Feb. 6 to take on the Comets in a non-conference contest. The Comets jumped out to a 35-25 lead at halftime before using a 39 point second half to defeat the Royals 74-53.

Hunter Hagensick and Briar Wall lead Seneca in scoring with 10 points each. Gage Wall (8 points), Dawson Davidson and Owen Oppriecht (6 points each), Reggie George (5 points), Jackson Konichek (4 points),  and Garret Baker and Carson Sime (2 points each) all got into the scoring column for the Royals in the loss.

Seneca returned home two days later to host North Crawford and nearly stunned the Trojans.

After falling behind 40-29 at halftime and by deficits as large as 15 points at times, the Royals turned up the heat on the Trojans. 

The Royals outscored the Trojans 30 to 19 in the second half to send the game into overtime. Seneca held a 64-63 lead on the Trojans in the final seconds before Trojan senior Deekin Smith drained a three-pointer as time expired to give North Crawford a 66-64 victory. 

Leading the Royals in scoring against the Trojans was Davidson with 18 points and Hagensick with 15 points. G. Wall (9 points), Konichek (8 points), George (7 points), Baker (5 points), and Oppriecht (2 points) all added to the Royals scoring attack.

The Royals fell to  8-10 overall and 5-5 in the Ridge and Valley Conference with the loss.

Following Tuesday night’s home game against De Soto, the Royals travel to second place Ithaca on Friday night before hosting Weston on Monday, Feb. 19.