Seniors walk off court for last time
By Wyatt Pfiefer
The UNK men’s basketball team has had an up-and-down season with lots of excitement throughout. The Lopers finished with a 16-14 record after going on a six-game winning streak before falling to the No. 3 seeded Washburn Ichabods in the quarterfinals of the MIAA conference tournament at the Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Missouri. This fun-to-watch team had some great games this past season, including a 7-point victory over the Northwest Missouri St. Bearcats who are the current defending champions.
All good things must come to an end, and it is tough seeing the three seniors and leaders of the team end their careers at UNK. Trey Lansman from Harlan, Iowa, Lane Rohrich from Pierce and Ty Danielson from York were the three seniors and key components of this team.
These three men came in every night, leaving it all out on the court and doing everything they could for their team.
The Lopers went into Kansas City coming off a 7-point victory over Southwest Baptist in the first round and also their final home game of the season. The team faced off against the No. 3 seeded Washburn, which ended up being a tough fought battle. Even with the star for Washburn Cameron Wiggins torching the nets from deep (8-11), the Ichabods only won the game by 10 points with the final score being 75-65 favoring Washburn.
Shooting like that made it extremely difficult to find a way to stay in this game, but UNK battled to keep the game relatively close. All three seniors ended their final game in double figures, with Lansman leading with 18, Rohrich with 14 as well as Danielson rounding out with 10 points.
UNK had a tough end, but it was an eventful season and some great career honors for the basketball team. Trey Lansman finished the season as the leading scorer in the MIAA, second in rebound and fifth in blocked shots. He finished his career with the fifth most points in UNK history.
Ty Danielson finished his career at UNK with the third most made threes, as well as third most attempted in school history.
Lane Rohrich rounded out the three seniors and stepped up when his team needed him with his biggest game of the season coming in the win over Northwest Missouri State, where he notched 24 points on a 10-12 shooting night. In fact, his only misses came from beyond the three-point line.
Another thing worth noting from this season was the junior from Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, Isaiah McKay. McKay finished the season without missing a single free throw attempt, shooting a perfect 100 percent from the charity stripe.
These three seniors are memorable ones and tough players to make up for next season. It will be interesting to watch how Coach Lofton adjusts to their departure and to see who steps up to take their places.
