BCN, Rebels win: No. 6 P-B-K pulls upset in finale
The Pingree-Buchanan-Kensal Rebels won just its third boys’ basketball game of the season at the Jamestown Civic Center on Thursday night, and boy was it a big one.By: Michael Savaloja, The Jamestown Sun
- Up for a Shot
- Tallen Berg
The Pingree-Buchanan-Kensal Rebels won just its third boys’ basketball game of the season at the Jamestown Civic Center on Thursday night, and boy was it a big one.
The Rebels somehow held on for a 51-49 victory over the Central Prairie Firebirds after watching a 24-point, third-period lead evaporate in the fourth, in the game that defined the opening night of the Class B District 5 Boys’ Basketball Tournament.
P-B-K’s upset was the only quarterfinal shocker, as the rest of the higher seeds prevailed. Barnes County North took down Litchville-Marion-Montpelier for the third time this season 50-36, and the now 15-5 Edgeley-Kulm Rebels stormed past Ellendale 69-39.
Today’s semifinals at the Civic Center has No 3-ranked LaMoure (19-0) facing BCN at 6 p.m., which will be followed with Edgeley-Kulm vs. P-B-K at 7:30 p.m. The tournament will resume with a loser-out game between Central Prairie and Ellendale at 4:30 p.m.
No. 6 P-B-K 51, No. 3 Central Prairie 49
He hadn’t made a free-throw all game.
In fact, he missed his only three attempts of the night in the fourth period and was once again standing at the charity stripe with basically the game on the line with 19 seconds left on the clock.
That young man was Pingree-Buchanan-Kensal junior forward J.R. Perleberg. A short memory served the lad well, as he squared up and sunk both double-bonus freebies to give the Rebels a five-point, 50-45 advantage.
That was all the points P-B-K would need, as a half-court prayer by Central Prairie’s Eric Knodel was just off the mark as time expired, handing the Rebels a two-point district tourney victory.
“When Knodel took that last shot, I thought it might be good,” P-B-K coach Duke Larson said. “I thought we were going to see a Duke/UNC from the night before.”
The fact that Central Prairie was even in the game late in the fourth was a head-scratcher, after the Rebels punched the Firebirds in the mouth in the opening half and led 30-11 at the break. The Rebels shot 42 percent from the field in the opening 16 minutes, including going 4 of 12 from three-point land.
On the other side, Central Prairie was living out a shooting nightmare. The Red Birds went 0 of 11 from beyond the arc in the first half (5 of 22 overall), and Knodel (8 points) and Thaddaeus Owen (3) were the only two Central Prairie players in the scoring column.
The Rebels and the Firebirds were no strangers this season, as Thursday night’s quarterfinal was the fourth time the teams had met up on the hardwood. Central Prairie had won the previous three matches, but all were won by eight points or less.
“If we would have played them once or twice, we might have been a little bit more nervous playing them,” Larson said. “We were really familiar with them and how they played. We sat back in a zone and hoped they wouldn’t shoot very well, and they struggled.”
But after a trio of three-pointers, two by Nicholas Blaskowski and one by Cole Diede, helped the Rebels go up by their largest lead of the game at 43-19 with 1:35 left in the third, things started to go in a southerly direction for the Rebels.
Diede and Blaskowski led the Rebels with 18 and 15 points, respectively.
The Firebirds closed out the frame on a 7-2 run, with four of those points coming from Nathan Denning, helping Central Prairie cut the lead to 43-25 to start the fourth.
The final eight minutes were a wild eight minutes. The Firebirds outscored the Rebels 24-8 in the frame, while P-B-K was only able to convert 6 of 15 free-throw attempts and committed 10 of their 22 turnovers, but somehow the Rebels survived.
“I think we tried every conceivable way to put them back in the game,” Larson said. “That’s high school basketball for you. We haven’t won a lot of games this year, so it’s just a matter of knowing how to win.
“I think that was part of the problem, and we missed some free throws at the end.”
Knodel went 9 of 9 from the line and scored 15 of his game-high 27 points in the fourth, as he and Denning were the only two Firebirds to score in the period. Denning sank 9 of his 14 points.
But shooting — particularly the three-ball — plagued Central Prairie. The Firebirds went 1 of 13 from three-point land in the fourth, and finished the game going 16 of 62 from the field for 25 percent.
Diede and Blaskowski led the Rebels with 18 and 15 points, respectively.
The Rebels ended the night hitting seven treys and shooting 42 percent from the field. The team will be hoping for a similar shooting performance tonight against Edgeley-Kulm, a team that’s beat them twice this season.
“The kids played well tonight. We’ve still got a pretty young team,” Larson said. “Edgeley-Kulm has a nice squad. We’re hoping we can put together a game and give them some competition, and anything can happen.”
No. 4 BCN 50, No. 5 L-M-M 36
A strong finish by the Barnes County North Bison assured the team a place in today’s semifinals.
The Bison outscored the Rebels 19-8 in the final period — without committing a single turnover over those eight minutes — en route to victory.
“It’s real good to see a finish like that in the fourth quarter,” BCN coach Stacy Schaffer said. “In some of the games that we’ve had we kind of get a little lazy on the defensive end, and offensively we kind of lose what we’re supposed to do and that’s where the turnovers come.
“The guys did a nice job of finishing the game out.”
After battling to a 31-28 advantage ever three it was still anyone’s game, but BCN clamped down to allow just three L-M-M field goals in the fourth and helped create six of L-M-M’s 17 turnovers. The Bison also received seven of Brad Clemens’ game high 18 points, while Jacoby Kramlich went 4 of 4 from the line and scored 8 of his 15.
Neither team tore the net off the rim, as both finished shooting under 40 percent. BCN went a cool 2 of 17 from behind the arc.
“We were tight that first half and couldn’t find a comfort zone,” Schaffer said. “In the second half, we still shot a little bit tight but we got the basketball inside to get that mix of inside outside.”
The two teams traded the lead in the third, before an 8-2 run by the Bison handed them a three-point lead to start the fourth.
It was a game the Bison were unable to look past. The previous two meetings between the Bison and Rebels were settled by just three points, with BCN pulling out the win each time.
“I knew it was going to be a battle both ways. We match-up well against them and they match-up well against us.” Schaffer said. “I told the team, it’s a brand new season right now because the regular season doesn’t matter much. Both teams are 0-0, and we’ve just got to go out and play the way we’ve been playing the last few games.”
No. 2 E-K 69, No. 7 Ellendale 39
When a team shoots over 45 percent, has four players in double figures and forces their opponent into 20-plus turnovers, a good result is usually the outcome.
That was the story for the Edgeley-Kulm Rebels on Thursday night, as they cruised past the Cardinals.
The Rebels sank 13 of 29 buckets in the first half, with Logan Hanson scoring 10 of his 12 points to help E-K lead 35-24 at the break. The Cards received 15 of Tanner White’s game-high 19, but 10 first-half turnovers hurt Ellendale.
“I think part of that was due to the shots we were taking,” E-K coach Kevin Strobel said of his team’s shooting percentage. “A lot of them were layups and five-footers in the paint. At times it got a little rugged on offense and we didn’t execute quite as well, but I thought overall we did well.”
Edgeley-Kulm continued to ramp up the pressure in the second half, leading 54-33 after three. Ellendale ended the night with 24 turnovers.
“That’s what we wanted to do. We wanted to pressure their guards,” Strobel said. “We knew they weren’t the strongest ball-handlers, so we wanted to start from there and hopefully get some easy looks, and that’s exactly what happened.”
Beau Diegel hit a pair of treys and finished with a team-high 16 points for the Rebels. Nathan Elhard (14) and Tallen Berg (10) also scored in double digits for the winning team.
The game was a rematch of Edgeley-Kulm’s final game of the season. The Rebels defeated the Cardinals 66-43 back on Jan. 31 in Edgeley.
“Our guys knew we couldn’t look past them. Ellendale works hard, they always do,” Strobel said. “Everything you do, you have to earn.”
District 5 Boys’ Basketball Tournament
No. 4 Barnes County North 50, No. 5 Litchville-Marion-Montpelier 36
L-M-M 6 16 28 36
BCN 7 16 31 50
L-M-M — Trystan Harr 23, Dylan Thompson 8, Trevor Alber 6, Devin Piehl 4, Nolan Alber 4, Garrett Van Asperen 3. Totals: 16-48 FG, 3-7 FT, 15 fouls, 17 turnovers. Three-pointers: (1-6) Van Asperen.
BCN — Brad Clemens 18, Jacoby Kramlich 15, Derek Fletcher 7, Cody Christ 6, Wyatt Steckler 4. Totals: 21-58 FG, 6-11 FT, 11 fouls, 7 turnovers. Three-pointers: (2-17) Kramlich, Fletcher.
Records: BCN 6-14; L-M-M 2-18.
No. 2 Edgeley-Kulm 69, No. 7 Ellendale 39
Ellendale 11 24 33 39
Edgeley-Kulm 21 35 54 69
Ellendale — Adam White 19, James Johnston 9, T.J. Belmore 4, Matthew Martin 3, Chase Durheim 2, Alexander Tschosik 1, Austin Roehl 1. Totals: 12-45 FG, 15-21 FT, 13 fouls, 24 turnovers. Three-pointers: (0-5).
Edgeley-Kulm — Beau Diegel 16, Nathan Elhard 14, Logan Hanson 12, Tallen Berg 10, Steven Giesler 6, Lucas Madcke 6, Jordan Nitschke 5. Totals: 26-56 FG, 11-16 FT, 17 fouls, 11 turnovers. Three-pointers: (6-13) Diegel 2, Madcke 2, Elhard, Nitschke.
Records: Edgeley-Kulm 15-5; Ellendale 2-18.
No. 6 Pingree-Buchanan-Kensal 51, No. 3 Central Prairie 49
P-B-K 18 30 43 51
Central Prairie 7 11 25 49
P-B-K — Cole Diede 18, Nicholas Blaskowski 15, Shawn Baker 11, J.R. Perleberg 5, Wyatt Guthmiller 2. Totals: 15-36 FG, 14-25 FT, 21 fouls, 22 turnovers. Three-pointers: (7-20) Blaskowski 3, Diede 2, Baker, Perleberg.
Central Prairie — Eric Knodel 27, Nathan Denning 14, Thaddaeus Owen 5, Will Staloch 3. Totals: 16-63 FG, 15-16 FT, 21 fouls, 13 turnovers. Three-pointers: (2-28) Denning, Staloch.
Records: P-B-K 3-17; Central Prairie 9-11.
Sun sports writer Michael Savaloja can be reached at (701) 952-861 or by email at mikes@jamestownsun.com
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