By Taylor Lee
Berthoud Recorder

The Berthoud boys’ basketball team defeated Skyline, 59-54, on Friday night at Berthoud High School.

The Spartans have talked about putting together four consecutive good quarters of basketball since the beginning of the season, and that’s exactly what they did.
With junior Joel Maly scoring his team’s first points and fellow junior Shane Hart sinking two free throws, things got off to a good start for Berthoud. They would only get better.

Maly scored 15 of the Spartans’ 26 points leading them to a close three-point lead at halftime.

Things continued to pick up for Berthoud in the third quarter with Hart scoring a 3-pointer. After Skyline’s Blaine Robinson, the leading scorer in the 4A Northern Conference, scored, the Spartans’ Ryan Barron assisted Maly to bring Berthoud’s lead to 33-28.

The Spartans had a five-point lead after Jeff Shields scored. Then everything went chaotic for the Falcons when head coach Brandon Knudsen was called for a technical foul. Hart secured four points for the Spartans, shooting for the technical.

After the Falcons’ Matt Shea tightened the gap to 55-51, Skyline’s coach was called for another technical and ejected from the game. Hart hit one of two free throws. With Robinson scoring again, all the Falcons needed was a 3-pointer to tie the game. But Berthoud’s Marcus Mathiesen was fouled twice in the final minute. He made two of four free throws to put the game away.