Elmwood/Plum City boys basketball started the year with a tough loss to Clear Lake 76-69 in a conference battle. Given that Clear Lake is a strong team expected to finish in the middle of the Dunn-St. Croix Conference, it was not a disappointment for the new look Wolves.

“We’re still trying to gel, we’re still trying to figure out our roles. At times it looks pretty promising and then we take a couple steps back,” Head Coach Paul McDonough said. “We’re starting to get to where we need to be.”

The Wolves have since lost four of five with four being non-conference matchups. The opponents were tough, including undefeated Stanley-Boyd and Turtle Lake teams. The conference loss came against Durand-Arkansaw, a team expected to set the pace in the Dunn-St. Croix.

“The first half we were close with them,” McDonough said. “Once they get in a groove, they seem to hang with the teams, it’s just that we’ve got to get over that little hump of having two halves of basketball, not just one half.”

McDonough said the height of some of those teams has caused problems, but they have found stretches of competitive play.

Losing Lucas Glaus, one of the smoothest scorers in the team’s history who averaged 23.4 points per game in his senior season and an eye-popping 1,468 career points, was always going to leave massive shoes to fill. There have been a few players to throw their hats in the ring though, including sophomore David Kopp who scored 17 on 7-of-8 shooting against Clear Lake and sophomore Caleb Kopp who scored 21 points on 8-of-13 shooting in a win over Birchwood. Juniors Logan Auth, Brewer Link and Landen McDonough have also had their days among the scoring leaders.

“The team’s kind of been divvying up the points,” McDonough said. “If we can get all the players to score 10 points a game, starters plus the bench, we should be in every game.”

McDonough said they have no issue sharing the ball, and they don’t need the same person to lead the scoring each and every night if everyone scores their share.

“We put a new offense in this year, and they kind of tended to always want to go back to the old one because they were comfortable with it,” McDonough said. “Now they’re starting to trust it and believing that it’s going to work.”

McDonough said the same goes for a new defense, and they need to trust that their teammates are there to back them up.