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By Levi Zimmerman
The Dodgeville boys basketball team traveled to Mount Horeb Tuesday nigh to take on the Vikings in non-conference play.
What resulted was a back-and-forth , exciting high school basketball game.
Ultimately, Mount Horeb edged the Dodgers in a 60-52 decision.
The Vikings had a pair of streak shooters in each half.
First, Nick Vorwald drilled four, three-point field goals in the opening half to help Mount Horeb to a 25-23 lead at halftime.
Then, Rocco Ritchie came alive in the second half, as he knocked down five, three-pointers for the Vikings, scoring 18 of his 20 points in the second half.
Mount Horeb out-scored Dodgeville 35-29 in the second half.
The Vikings made an impressive 13, three-pointers while having just 10, two-point baskets.
Dodgeville was led by senior Matthew Pittz, who had 14 points, including three, three-pointers.
Fellow senior Chandler Batchelor followed with 11 points.
Dodgers head coach Matt McGraw said, "It was a hard fought game in Mt Horeb tonight. We were down a starter right off the bat but we certainly were not going to use that as an excuse. We went with Noah Pittz in the starting line up for the first time this year and he did some really good things. He has obviously played a lot of quality minutes already this season but you never know when a role gets changed at the last minute. He played well overall. Matthew didn't have his best shooting night but still had 14 to keep us close. After turning the ball over too much in the first half trying to get the ball down low, we made some adjustments and did much better with that in the 2nd half. Batchelor had 8 in the 2nd half including a couple dunks and also found some slashers and kick outs for good looks. I thought Matthew and Charlie executed the defensive gameplan really well. Going zone against a good shooting team from the wings is no easy task. They did well. It was the corner that was our main issue tonight as Richie got real hot in the 2nd half,"
Despite taking a loss, McGraw said he was generally pleased with Dodgeville's play Tuesday.
"As a team I am happy with a lot of things. I think we have worked our way into being a really good team and we battled a really good team tonight right down to the last couple minutes. I would guess not a whole lot of people thought we were going to go there and give them a battle, and if a couple things bounced our way late, we could be real happy tonight," he said. "We can build from this, learn from it and keep improving. Back to conference play on Friday night vs River Valley."
SCORE BY HALVES
Dodgeville 23 29 52
Mount Horeb 25 35 60

BOX SCORE
DODGEVILLE 52: (fg-ft-tp)
M. Pittz 5-1-14, Walker 2-2-6, Keith 4-0-8, Jabs 1-0-3, N. Pittz 2-3-7, Honerbaum 0-0-0, Haakenson 1-0-3, Batchelor 5-1-11. Totals- 20-7/13-52. Fouls-10
MOUNT HOREB 60: Manchester 6-3-16, Aschliman 0-0-0, Vorwald 4-0-12, Richie 7-1-20, Maguire 3-1-7, Hannah 0-0-0, Lange 0-0-0, Peter 1-2-5, Leibfried 0-0-0. Totals- 23-6/10-60. Fouls-12
3-point goals:
DODGEVILLE (5)- M. Pittz 3, Jabs 1, Haakenson 1
MOUNT HOREB (13)- Richie 5, Vorwald 4, Maguire 2, Manchester 1, Peter 1