Cards, Imperials win
Playing the same team twice in one week is never and easy task and the Edgeley-Kulm-Montpelier Rebels found out why at the Jamestown Civic Center on Friday night.By: By Michael Savaloja, The Jamestown Sun, The Jamestown Sun
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Playing the same team twice in one week is never and easy task and the Edgeley-Kulm-Montpelier Rebels found out why at the Jamestown Civic Center on Friday night.
After defeating the Napoleon Imperials 64-56 in Napoleon on Monday, the Imperials bounced back by defeating the Rebels 44-42 in the semifinals of the Stutsman County Boys Basketball tournament.
“We didn’t shoot nearly as well as we did then … It was really just a matchup change for the most part,” Napoleon coach Caleb Ketterling said of Friday night’s win. “I really don’t want to show (E-K-M) anything too crazy because we’ll probably see them again down the road. It was mostly just matchups and we did a little bit better job of taking care of the ball.”
Napoleon (3-1) is now set to square off against the No. 1-seeded and No. 8-ranked Carrington Cardinals in tonight’s championship game at 6:30 p.m. The Cardinals blew past P-B-K 75-21 in the first semifinal game of the day.
The Imperials lived and died with the long ball against E-K-M, but they made just enough of them to squeak by with the one-point victory. Napoleon chucked up 37 field goals in the game, 23 of those were 3-pointers.
But the team got 9 of them to fall, with Trent Fettig draining three and eighth-grader Bryce Fettig hitting three more.
“That doesn’t surprise me any. We’ve got a bunch of shooters … They’re all kind of set shooters and they do a good job of setting each other up,” Ketterling said. “I don’t discourage it. I would like to see a little more attacks to the rim … But I’ve got good shooters and I’m confident with them.”
The 6-foot-1 Bryce Fettig came up big for the Imperials in the final period of play. His third trey of the night gave the Imperials their largest lead of the game at 42-32 with 4 minutes left to play.
He also connected on a huge bucket in the paint with 2 minutes left that came in the middle of an 8-2 Rebel run which cut the Imperials’ advantage to 44-40 with under a minute to go.
“He’s been a pretty good player all the way through grade school and junior high, and he’s big for an eighth-grader,” Ketterling said of Fettig. “I told him as long as he decides to play defense for me, I’ll get him out there and get him some playing time.”
Bryce Fettig finished with 11 points, while Trent Fettig tossed in 12. The Rebels’ Logan Hanson led all scorers with 18 points, while Berg finished the game scoring 13.
The Rebels outrebounded the Imperials 38-22, led by eight boards from Berg. But what stung the Rebels was shooting.
E-K-M (3-1) converted just 16 of 51 field goal attempts for 31 percent.
Slowing Carrington’s transition game down will be key if the Imperials plan on pulling off the upset in tonight’s title tilt.
“We need to weather their storm early,” Ketterling said of Carrington. “I’ve got four guards that can take care of the ball, so as long as we do that and be pretty patient – you can’t let them get layups and run – and if we can weather that storm we might give them a surprise.”
Carrington 75, P-B-K 21
The Carrington Cardinals got off to anything but a sluggish start in the first semifinal game of the evening against Pingree-Buchanan-Kensal.
The No. 8-ranked Cards absolutely dominated the first half of play, starting with a 29-point outburst in the first period. Fueled by a choking full-court press, Carrington forced the Rebels into 12 turnovers over the first 8 minutes of the game.
Most of those Rebel turnovers were steals the Cards were creating out of their stifling press, and a good majority of those went back time and time again for easy buckets in transition. Carrington led 48-11 at the break and set the cruise control in the second half to win by 54 points.
“That’s the way I wish we could start the game every game. They definitely came to play tonight,” Carrington coach Matt Hone said of his team. “We wanted to set a good tone right from the get-go, that we were the top seed and that we can handle the pressure of playing in a game that can put yourself in a championship game, and we sure did.”
The first period, which ended 29-6 Cards, could have been even more lopsided. Carrington shot a blistering 13 of 19 from the field in the first, but five of the six shots the team missed in the first were 3-point attempts.
Carrington finished the first half shooting 55 percent from the floor (21-38), and went into the locker room at the half with a comfy lead after forcing P-B-K into 23 of its 42 turnovers in the game.
“That’s what we pride ourselves on. Our defense and our ability to create turnovers and push the ball up the floor,” Hone said. “That’s the kind of style we like to play. Sometimes it takes until the second half to get into it and make it work, but tonight it was clicking right off the bat.”
Carrington finished the game with 32 steals, led by Seth Abaurrea with 7 and Austin Johnson with 6. A total of 10 Cardinals scored, led by Johnson’s 14 points.
The Rebels were playing without one of their key cogs in junior forward Nicholas Blaskowski. Blaskowski’s season came to an end after suffering a torn ACL in his left knee during Thursday’s quarterfinal game vs. Ellendale.
Blaskowski did, however, surpass 1,000 career points (1,001) prior to his injury on Thursday.
“Nic Blaskowski, obviously he was their main scorer last year and they had some big plans for him this year. It’s a tragic deal he’s not going to be able to play the rest of the season but he will be back next year,” Hone said. “When you lose a key to your team like that, you really have to revamp your whole team. It takes a little time to adjust and so that’s what I think you saw here tonight, we kind of caught them in that adjustment phase.”
The Rebels converted just 9 of 36 field goals in the game and were led in scoring by Shawn Baker with 8 points. Baker scored 28 against Ellendale on Thursday.
Carrington is now focused on the title game and Napoleon. Edgeley-Kulm will face P-B-K for third-place today at 5 p.m.
Carrington won the Stutsman County Tournament back in 2010.
“If we come out with this same kind of intensity we came out with tonight that will set a good tone,” Hone said. “It’s a matter of how we start the game again. Can we set the tempo and can we dictate the speed of it?”
Stutsman County Basketball Tournament
At Jamestown Civic Center
Friday’s semifinals
Carrington 75, Pingree-Buchanan-Kensal 21
P-B-K 6 11 19 21
Carrington 29 48 61 75
P-B-K — Shawn Baker 8, Ian Snow 6, JR Perleberg 5, Cody Horn 2. Totals: 9-36 FG, 3-8 FT, 30 rebounds (Horn 9), 12 fouls, 3 assists (Baker 2), 42 turnovers, 2 blocks (Baker 2), 4 steals (Baker 3). Three-pointers: (0-7).
Carrington — Austin Johnson 14, Seth Abaurrea 12, Taylor Skytland 11, Scott Burnham 11, Tysen Rosenau 9, Jake Edland 8, Joey Kubal 4, Alex Nelson 2, Ryan Indergaard 2, Brady Bickett 2. Totals: 33-64 FG, 8-13 FT, 32 rebounds (Nelson 6), 10 fouls, 22 assists (Skytland 9), 16 turnovers, 4 blocks (Burnham 2), 32 steals (Abaurrea 7, Johnson 6, Skytland 5, Nelson 5). Three-pointers: (1-9) Skytland 1.
Records: Carrington 4-0; P-B-K 3-2.
Napoleon 44, Edgeley-Kulm-Montpelier 42
Napoleon 5 19 32 44
E-K-M 10 16 26 42
Napoleon — Trent Fettig 12, Bryce Fettig 11, Eli Hilzendeger 8, Dylan A. Bitz 7, Grant Weigel 6. Totals: 16-37 FG, 3-9 FT, 25 rebounds (Bitz 6), 15 fouls, 12 assists (Hilzendeger 5, T. Fettig 5), 14 turnovers, 2 blocks (T. Fettig 1, Weigel 1), 6 steals (3 with 2). Three-pointers: (9-23) B. Fettig 3, T. Fettig 3, Hilzendeger 2, Bitz 1.
E-K-M — Logan Hanson 18, Tallen Berg 11, Noah Greer 6, Jordan Nitschke 3, Connor Entzi 2. Totals: 16-51 FG, 7-11 FT, 38 rebounds (Berg 8), 14 fouls, 7 assists (Berg 3, Greer 3), 12 turnovers, 2 blocks (Entzi 1, James DeLaurier 1), 6 steals (Berg 2, Greer 2). Three-pointers: (3-12) Berg 2, Nitschke 1.
Records: Napoleon 3-1; E-K-M 3-1.
Sun sports writer Michael Savaloja can be reached at 701-952-8461 or by email at msavaloja@jamestownsun.com
Tags: class b, sports, basketball
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