Bearcats hold on: Second-half comeback lifts NS past Grafton

Jake Hagler doesn’t rank his performance Thursday as one of his better ones.

“It was probably a little below average,” the North Star junior said. “I didn’t shoot very well. But a win is a win.”

And, despite his struggles, Hagler was a key factor as North Star handed Grafton a 63-58 defeat in the quarterfinals of the North Dakota Class B boys high school basketball tournament.

The game was a rematch of last season’s state championship, won by the Bearcats. North Star improved to 25-0 while extending its two-season winning streak to 52 games. Grafton dropped to 22-3.

Hagler finished 23 points, including the final 11 points scored by the Bearcats.He scored the game’s final six points.

“I love having the ball at crunch time,” Hagler said. “I was hoping to get to the basket and create something, that the ball would start dropping. I practice free throws religiously.”

Grafton, down 57-53, rallied behind Jake Hanson. The senior guard drove the lane for a basket, then was fouled while hitting a pull-up jumper from the left wing and hit the free throw for a 58-57 lead with 2:38 left.

Hagler, however, answered. It was two free throws with 1:22 left for a one-point North Star lead, two more free throws with 22 seconds remaining, and two more free throws with 2.8 seconds left.

“When Jake gets to the free-throw line, you’d like to think he’ll put them in,” North Star coach Jeff Hagler said.

North Star’s one-two punch was Jake Hagler and Daniel Grande, who scored 14 of his 24 points in the first half.

The Spoilers led 35-29 at halftime, closing the second quarter on an 18-5 run.

“Daniel carried us in the first half,” Jeff Hagler said. “Jake was in foul trouble; we needed somebody to step up. Daniel pushed himself so hard that he was throwing up at halftime.”

Grafton had its own one-two punch in Hanson and Adam Jiskra. Hanson finished with 28 points and Jiskra scored 20 as well as getting the defensive assignment of covering Hagler.

“Adam did a great job of defending him,” Grafton coach Mike Hanson said. “But Hagler is a stud.

“Jiskra and Hanson played really well for us. But we needed more balance. I told the kids two things would win the game — turnovers and rebounds. And down the stretch, we made turnovers and they seemed to get every rebound.”

Shiloh Christian 58, Divide County 48

Joey Dwyer had 18 points and Donovan Lambert 17 to lead Shiloh Christian to 58-48 win over Divide County in the first round of the North Dakota Class B boys basketball tournament on Thursday.

Lambert had three of Shiloh’s 10 3-pointers. Walter Bearstail added three for nine points and Dwyer two.

The Skyhawks (22-3) had six 3-pointers in their 24-point third quarter.

Divide County (18-8) shot just 19-for-60 from the field. They were led by Morgan Jacobs’ 16 points. Andreas Holm added 12 points and 15 rebounds and Taylor Wigginton and Isaac Jacobs added 10 points apiece.

Beulah 65, Central Cass 48

Jesse Hettich didn’t know the exact numbers for Central Cass. He just knew the Squirrels have put up a lot of points on the scoreboard.

“We took that as a challenge,” the Beulah High School junior said. “We don’t want to let teams score a lot.”

Hettich was the leader on a Beulah defense that dominated as the Miners beat Central Cass 65-48 on Thursday in the quarterfinals of the North Dakota Class B state boys high school basketball tournament.

Beulah improved to 23-3 while handing Central Cass its first loss in 26 games.

“At times, we’ve been a good defensive team this year,” Beulah coach Jeremy Brandt said. “This was one of our best games. I don’t think we’ve seen a quick, explosive team before like they are.”

Central Cass entered the game with a 77.8 scoring average. It had scored 60 or more points in every game. But it was limited to 16-of-55 shooting from the field while turning the ball over 15 times.

Hettich had team highs of five steals and two blocks. “He’s a big kid, but his hands are so quick,” Brandt said. “He creates havoc.”

Beulah never trailed. The Miners were up as much as 30-16 in the first half before Central Cass closed the second quarter on an 11-2 run to pull within 32-27 at intermission. The Miners were up 47-36 after three and steadily pulled away.

“We didn’t shoot very well,” said Central Cass coach Troy Roesler. “That’s a credit to Beulah and its length. They defended the passing lanes well. Some of the things we’ve usually done, they didn’t let us do.

State Class B Boys’ Basketball Tournament

Grand Forks

Thursday’s quarterfinals

NORTH STAR 63, GRAFTON 58

North Star 18 29 49 53

Grafton 13 35 46 58

NORTH STAR (25-0): Grande 8-17 6-6 24, Hagler 6-14 10-10 23, Haugen 3-4 0-0 6, Larson 3-5 0-0 6, Braun 1-6 0-0 3, Weston 0-2 1-3 1. Totals: 21-48 17-19 63.

GRAFTON (22-3): Hanson 10-24 5-5 28, Jiskra 8-13 4-5 20, Houdek 3-5 0-0 6, Lundquist 1-9 1-2 4, Contreras 0-3 0-0 0, Burns 0-0 0-0 0, Droog 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 22-54 10-12 58.

3-pinters: NS 4-14 (Grande 2-4, Hagler 1-2, Larson 0-2, Braun 1-4), Grafton 4-23 (Hanson 3-14, Jiskra 0-1, Houdek 0-1, Lundquist 1-7). Rebounds: NS 21 (Hagler 8), Grafton 28 (Lundquist 7). Assists: NS 5 (Hagler 5), Grafton 5 (Jiskra 2, Lundquist 2). Total fouls: NS 12, Grafton 16. Fouled out: Jiskra.

SHILOH CHRISTIAN 58, DIVIDE COUNTY 48

Divide County 10 23 36 48

Shiloh Christian 9 23 47 58

DIVIDE COUNTY (18-8): M. Jacobs 7-13 1-3 16, Holm 4-18 4-6 12, Wigginton 4-13 0-0 10, I. Jacob 4-7 0-0 10, Lystad 0-7 0-0 0, Marschner 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 19-60 5-9 48.

SHILOH CHRISTIAN (22-3): Dwyer 7-16 2-2 18, Lambert 5-13 4-5 17, Bearstail 3-5 0-0 9, Rask 3-8 0-0 6, Hulstrand 2-9 0-2 5, Miller 1-3 0-0 3, Klitzke 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 21-55 6-9 58.

3-pinters: Divide County 5 (Wigginton 2, I. Jacobs 2, M. Jacobs 1), Shiloh 10 (Lambert 3, Bearstail 3, Dwyer 2, Hultstrand 1, Miller 1). Rebounds: Divide County 39 (Holm 15), Shiloh 30 (Rask 7). Assists: Divide County 5 (Wigginton 3), Shiloh 10 (Dwyer 3, Lambert 3). Turnovers: Divide County 10, Shiloh 9. Total fouls: Divide Clounty 12, Shiloh 11.

BEULAH 65, CENTRAL CASS 48

Beulah 17 15 15 18 — 65

Central Cass 10 17 9 12 — 48

Beulah — Trevor Zacher 18, Cody Nelson 12, Jesse Hettich 11, Casey Duppong 10, Tyler Murray 8, Noah Iverson 4, Hunter Heringer 2

Central Cass — Ellery Bresnahan 12, Josh Roesler 12, Ben Sundquist 12, Matt Zimmerman 8, Adam Breske 2, Michael Utt 1, Garrett Ebach 1

DeVillers is a sports writer at the Grand Forks Herald

Tags: class b, sports, basketball