The visiting Glenville-Emmons boys’ basketball team defeated Alden-Conger Tuesday by a 56-53 margin, in a game that was close all the way through.

“It was anyone’s game until the end,” said Alden-Conger coach Bill Hintz.

It was an evenly-matched contest between the two teams, as evidenced by 14 lead changes. The game started out basket-for-basket, with neither team surrendering the lead for very long. Both sides traded some runs as well. The Knights put up nine unanswered points in the first half for a 6-point lead, but the Wolverines regrouped with a timeout and came back to tie it at 21 apiece.

The halftime score left Glenville-Emmons holding a 3-point lead, just as it ended up with at the end of the game.

The Knights got a quick basket in the first minute of the second half before a scoring drought hit the floor for both teams until the Knights scored again four minutes in.

Part of that could be attributed to Glenville-Emmons switching up the defense in the second half and shutting down some of the key guys for Alden-Conger, according to Glenville-Emmons coach Jared Matson.

“Give Alden credit, they were attacking the basket hard,” Matson said.

Leads were traded again before Alden-Conger went on an 8-0 run.

“We started moving the ball,” Hintz said. “Just trying to get open.”

As the minutes ticked down however, Glenville-Emmons senior guard Derek Olson completed a 3-point play, scored a layup and drained a shot from beyond the arc to extend his team’s lead. Junior guard Gavin Allison also scored a 3-pointer during that stretch for the Wolverines.

With just a couple minutes left, the Wolverines led 55-47. Alden-Conger narrowed the gap slightly with the help of some free throws.

The Knights had one last chance to tie it with 8.9 seconds remaining after a failed free-throw attempt by Olson. The Knights brought it down the court and went for a shot from underneath the hoop, but it didn’t go. Cue the buzzer.

“We wanted a 3-point shot,” Hintz said. “It just didn’t work out.”

One of the differences in the game from Hintz’ eyes were the shots from close range that his team wasn’t able to finish off, like the shots when standing under the hoop.

“There was a lot of them,” Hintz said.

“We just got lazy. We slowed down. We didn’t move.”

Still, Hintz said his team played hard and well defensively. On the scoring side, junior guard Matt Erickson led the Knights with 13 points and 17 rebounds.

For Glenville-Emmons, Olson had a pretty typical game with a team-leading 25 points and five 3-pointers.

“He’s usually right around four to six 3’s a game,” Matson said.

Since every team knows they need to stop Olson, Matson said, that’s why Glenville-Emmons needs to find other guys to help out with points as well. Matson was pleased with the way Allison played. He was second in team scoring with 11 points.

“He was really aggressive tonight,” Matson said.

With the win, the Wolverines are on a two-game winning streak, have won three of their last four and are 4-13 overall this season.

“We’re hitting our stride right now,” Matson said. “The guys, they’re bringing energy every night. We started off slow, but now things are starting to click offensively and defensively, and it’s starting to show on the court.”

The Knights fell to 2-15 overall with the loss.

Both teams are back in action Friday. Glenville-Emmons hosts Lanesboro for a 7:15 p.m. tipoff in conference play. Alden-Conger will travel to Maple River for a conference game at 7:30 p.m.