Grafton claims fifth, Linton-HMB closes with win

Grafton closed its boys basketball season with a rare switch from a man-to-man defense to a zone. The maneuver paid off as the Spoilers rallied to beat Central Cass 71-57 in the consolation championship game.

“It’s probably only the fourth time we’ve played zone all year, and one of those was sort of for a practice at it,” Spoilers coach Mike Hanson said. “But they were penetrating so well and getting good looks. We wanted to switch things up. We had to make an adjustment, (Central Cass guard Ellery) Bresnahan is so quick.”

Central Cass poured in 41 points in the first half to lead by six. The Squirrels managed only 16 points in the second half after Grafton went to its zone early in the third quarter.

The Squirrels were still even at 55 when Bresnahan hit a free throw with 4:09 left. But Grafton responded with the next 14 points and a game-closing 16-2 run.

“I think both teams were pretty fatigued,” Grafton senior Jake Hanson said.

Hanson finished with a game-high 22 points.

Linton-HMB 68, Divide County 43

Tanner Purintun is the only player to average at least 20 points a game for Linton-HMB in the 30 years Dan Carr has coached the Lions. Purintun went out with a bang in the seventh-place game.

The senior guard poured in 32 points to lead Linton to the win. He also grabbed nine rebounds and four steals.

Linton-HMB got off to a fast start, leading 17-7 after one quarter, and built its advantage to 33-16 at halftime and 53-31 after three.

Andreas Holm had a big game for Divide County with 25 points and 17 rebounds.

Fifth place

Grafton 71, Central Cass 57

Grafton 17 35 47 71

Central Cass 22 41 51 57

Grafton — Jake Hanson 22, Nic Lundquist 13, Austin Contreras 10, Adam Jiskra 10, Garek Droog 9, Zach Burns 4, Thomas Houdek 2, Jamie Villarreal 1.

Central Cass — Matt Zimmerman 17, Ellery Bresnahan 12, Josh Roesler 9, Ben Sundquist 8, Jon Lubbers 6, Joey Ueland 3, Michael Larson 1, Connor Rieniets 1.

Seventh place

Linton-Hazelton-Moffit-Braddock 68, Divide County 43

Linton-HMB 17 33 53 68

Divide County 7 16 31 43

Linton-HMB — Tanner Purintun 32, Cody Sehn 8, Ryan Dralle 8, Mason Ryckman 4, Tyler Humann 4, Andrew Small 4, Nathan Wieser 3, Brooks Flyberg 3, Ryan Schneider 2.

Divide County — Andreas Holm 25, Ethan Feil 8, Taylor Wigginton 5, Morgan Jacobs 5

Tags: class b, sports, basketball