Mr. Basketball finalists announced

Kidder County’s Adam Randall, Mandan’s Bryan Kielpinski, Fargo North’s Nik Savageau of and Grant Singer, of Turtle Lake-Mercer-McClusky are the four finalists for this year’s Mr. Basketball.

Randall, a 6-foot-4 forward, finished the year averaging 26.1 points per game, 9.8 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 2.2 steals as he helped lead the Pirates to a 19-5 record and their first Class B state tournament appearance since 1991.

Kielpinski, 6-7 center, averaged 16.6 points per this season and shot 62 percent from the field. He also grabbed 8.2 rebounds per clip. Mandan finished the regular season atop the West Region standings with a 15-1 region record and a 21-4 overall record. The Braves cruised through the first two rounds of the Class A state tournament before falling to Bismarck in an overtime heartbreaker, 58-55.

Savageau, 5-11 guard, helped lead the East Region regular season champions to a 20-5 overall record and a 12-2 East record after scoring 20.7 points per game and grabbing 5.5 rebounds. The Spartans advanced to the state tournament as the No. 2 seed and eventually finished third. He also dished off an average of 4.1 assists and made 2.5 steals.

Singer, 6-1 forward, scored 24.7 points per game and grabbed 11.7 boards for the Trojans, as they finished the regular season 18-2. Singer finished with a 4.1 assists per game average, while also contributing 3.6 steals per contest.

The Mr. Basketball award will be announced Saturday night after the Class B championship game.

— David Griswold

Tags: kidder county, sports, basketball, randall