Trojans shut down Cass Lake-Bena at state

By Anthony Gray

Pioneer Sports Writer

      The Cass Lake-Bena boys basketball team was ice cold from the field and badly outrebounded for the second straight game but unlike their quarterfinal win, this opponent was able to capitalize.

      The Panthers shot a cool 31 percent from the field and Rushford-Peterson held a 24 rebound advantage for a 58-40 win Friday in the Minnesota Class 1A state semifinals at Target Center.

      CL-B shot 38 percent and was minus 16 on the boards in their opening round game Wednesday versus St. Agnes. The Panthers were able to overcome that performance for a 74-67 win but Friday it was a different story.

      Rushford-Peterson kept the Panthers from playing their fast-paced style and combined 20 points off turnovers and 17 second-chance points to pull away.

      Cass Lake-Bena’s leading scorer Byron Ninham (26 points per game) had another off night. After scoring a career low 13 points Wednesday, Ninham was held to just 10 points on 4 of 12 shooting.

      “I thought my touches were alright,” said Ninham, who was 8 of 32 from the field in two state tournament games. “The shots I did get I should have hit but it just hasn’t been my tournament.

      “We knew coming down that every team has a tough defense but we were still getting all the looks that we were used to getting but we just couldn’t hit.”

      Senior Bill Brown, who led the Panthers with 25 points Wednesday, again led the team Friday with 12 points on 5-15 shooting from the field.

      After a 15-14 lead after the first quarter, the Trojans outscored CL-B 28-11 over the second and third for a 42-28 lead entering the fourth.

      “When our defense gave up those points in the third quarter it kind of killed us,” Ninham said.

      Brown hit a 3-pointer to pull the Panthers to within 29-26 at 5:12 in the third but CL-B missed six of their next seven attempts while the Trojans put 13 points on the board for a 14-point lead after three.

      In the fourth, back-to-back baskets by Brady Fairbanks kept the Panthers within 12 points but then R-P sophomore center Matt Ulrich picked up easy baskets underneath as the Trojans easily broke the Panthers’ full-court press. \

      “We came back and cut into their lead and hopefully we could have made a run after that but then we gave up those fast-break layups,” Ninham said.

      Ulrich, who averaged just two points per game on the season and played in just six games, scored 10 of his game-high 14 points over a span of four minutes to give the Trojans their biggest lead of the game 56-36 with 1:40 remaining in regulation.

      Rushford-Peterson’s starting center, junior Adam Norton, was the team’s second-leading scorer with 12 points. The Trojans followed their game plan as they scored 48 of their 58 points in the paint.

      “We worked on it in practice Thursday,” said Trojans’ senior guard Tyler Drinkall. “We knew they really liked to extend their defense so we thought we could get some open looks with our big guys underneath.

      “They were open, we got them the ball and they finished for us.”

      The Panthers led all but 14 seconds in the first quarter behind five points from Ninham and a 3-point play by David Chessmore to start the game on an 8-2 run.

      But Ninham would go just 1 of 9 from there until a 3-pointer with 1:28 left in the game.

      CL-B’s Kevin Muller hit a 3 with :29 left in the first for a 15-14 lead at the end of one. But Alex Mierau, who sat out 15 regular-season games with a broken hand, gave the Trojans the lead for good on a jumper to start the second.

      Mierau, Drinkall and Tony Rislove all ended with 10 points. Drinkall and Mierau completed the double-double with 14 and 10 rebounds respectively.

      Ninham led the Panthers with six boards.

      Cass Lake-Bena plays Section 8’s Marshall County Central at Concordia-St. Paul this morning at 10 a.m. for the third place trophy. R-P moves on to face defending champion Russell-Tyler-Ruthton in today’s final at noon. R-T-R defeated MCC 52-44.

Notes

      K Only a small section of Rushford-Peterson fans were in attendance as the snowstorm that blanketed southeastern Minnesota made the roads impassable for those fans .

      K The Trojans won the Class 1A state football title in the fall.

Rushford-Peterson 14 11 17 16 - 58

Cass Lake-Bena 15 6 7 12 - 40

Rushford-Peterson (20-11): Tyler Johnson 0-2 0-0 0, Alex Mierau 4-12 2-4 10, Tony Rislove 4-9 0-0 10, Tyler Drinkall 4-17 2-6 10, Adam Norton 5-8 2-6 12, Joe Ostrem 0-0 0-0 0, Matt Halverson 0-1 0-0 0, Zac Johnson 0-1 0-0 0, Robby Ebner 0-0 0-0 0, Jeremy Olson 0-0 0-0 0, Brent Morcomb 0-1 0-0 0, Jacob Agrimson 1-1 0-0 2, Jonathan O’Donnell 0-0 0-0 0, Matt Ulrich 7-9 0-1 14. Totals 25-61 6-17 58.

Cass Lake-Bena (24-7): Brady Fairbanks 3-3 0-0 6, Bill Brown 5-15 2-4 12, Kevin Muller 2-9 0-0 5, Byron Ninham 4-12 0-0 10, David Chessmore 2-4 2-5 6, Travis Huesers 0-2 0-0 0, Joel Salscheider 0-0 0-0 0, Josh Hilmer 0-2 0-0 0, Anthony Robinson 0-4 0-0 0, Kevin Burnette 0-0 0-0 0, Dusty Stensland 0-0 0-0 0, Nate Salscheider 0-0 0-0 0, Eric Fairbanks 0-0 0-0 0, Ed Basurto 0-0 1-2 1. Totals 16-51 5-11 40.

3-point field goals: CLB 3-13 (Brown 0-5, Muller 1-1, Ninham 2-4, Hilmer 0-1, Robinson 0-2), RP 2-10 (Rislove 2-6, Drinkall 0-2, Halverson 0-1, Johnson 0-1). Total fouls: CLB 14, RP 11. Technical Fouls: Brown. Rebounds: CLB 28 (Ninham 6), RP 52 (Drinkall 14). Assists: CLB 4 (Brown 4), RP 11 (Mierau 6). Turnovers: CLB 14 (Ninham 5), RP 15 (four with 3). Officials: Paul Nesvig, Paul Conrad, Brad Emanuel.