Ellendale, Central Prairie advance to District 5 championship game

In order to win in the postseason, teams need players to step up in the clutch.

That’s exactly what the Ellendale Cardinals received in Saturday’s District 5 boys’ basketball semifinals against Litchville-Marion-Montpelier at the Jamestown Civic Center.

Ellendale’s 6-foot-5 junior center Nolan Hamar sank 4 of 6 double-bonus shots at the stripe and recorded a huge block on L-M-M’s Dillon Carpenter — all in the final 40 seconds of the game — as the No. 3-seeded Cardinals held on to beat the No. 2-seeded Rebels 70-68.

“It was a great effort by both teams,” Ellendale coach Brain Vance said. “It’s the kind of game you hate to see someone lose, but we’re glad we came out on the winning end.”

The Cards jumped out to a 21-14 lead after one period, which forced the Rebels to play catch-up throughout the rest of the game. Hamar scored nine of his team-high 20 points in the first half to help Ellendale to a 35-31 lead at the break.

But another athlete who brought his game face for the Cards was senior Michael Redlin. Redlin also scored nine in the first half, and ended the game with 18 points after hitting 2 of 2 three-point shots and 4 of 4 free throw attempts.

“We needed someone to step up and Mike has been a silent leader for us all season,” Vance said. “When it came down to the end, he was able to hit some free throws for us.”

Redlin hit a pair of bonus shots with 1:02 left in the game to put the Cards up 66-61, after L-M-M just cut the lead to 64-61 on a Chad Limesand steal and score.

The Rebels did force the Cardinals to turn the ball over quite a bit during the game. The Cardinals committed 22 turnovers to just 10 by the Rebels.

“The kids’ nerves were a little tense, but they stepped up when they had to,” Vance said. “Our guards get a little nervous at times, but we’re a young team and they’re learning.”

The Rebels weren’t finished fighting after Redlin’s two shots at the line. Carpenter came back to hit a pair of free throws of his own, and with 41.1 seconds to play L-M-M’s Travis Brandvold found Carpenter underneath on an out of bounds play where he scored the bucket and was fouled.

Carpenter missed the bonus shot, which would have tied the game at 66-66. The Rebels cut the lead to one-point again at 69-68 with 8.6 seconds remaining on a Trevor Tollefson three-pointer, but L-M-M ran out of time.

“It was two good teams going at it and we knew it would come down to the last minute,” L-M-M coach Chad Lueck said. “We didn’t play as well as we could have, but we did have a chance to win it at the end and I couldn’t ask for much more.

“(Ellendale) executed very well in the half court. We threw a lot of defenses at them and they attacked and scored on most of them.”

Ellendale outrebounded the Rebels 46-22 and was led by Hamar with 12 boards. The Rebels were led by Carpenter with 20 points and 12 rebounds, while Tollefson ended the night with 13 points and Limesand produced 12.

The Cardinals converted 26 of 53 shots from the floor for 49.1 percent, while L-M-M converted 28 of 63 shots for 44.4 percent.

Ellendale (13-8) will face Central Prairie (16-3) in tonight’s District 5 championship game, which will tip off at 8 p.m. No. 1-seeded Central Prairie defeated Edgeley-Kulm 65-44 on Saturday in the other semifinal.

“Hopefully we can stay on this little roll we’ve got going,” Vance said. “The Firebirds play great defense and they’re all clones. They all shoot well and penetrate well. We’ll need to come out and play solid defense and go from there.”

L-M-M (10-11) will meet up with LaMoure (6-14) today at 4:30 p.m. in a Region 3 play-in game.

“We need to get our heads back up and play to our potential,” Lueck said. “If we do we should be all right. It’s do or die time.”

Central Prairie 65, E-K 44

The Civic Center has almost turned into a home away from home for the Central Prairie Firebirds.

Central Prairie won the Stutsman County tourney inside back in January, and on Saturday the Firebirds shot 52.2 percent (24 of 46) from the field while taking down Edgeley-Kulm 65-44.

“We do have some guys who can shoot the ball,” Central Prairie coach Paul Erbele said. “It’s nice to see them stepping up with confidence.”

Central Prairie’s first three field goals of the game came from behind the three-point arc. Chris Fayville, Dacotah Dockter and Brock Knodel all connected from long range to put the Firebirds up 9-2 early.

Knodel and Central Prairie’s Nic Moser scorched the net for 11 and eight points, respectively, in the first half, as the Firebirds took a 35-18 lead into the locker room at the break.

In the third period, Fayville came to life for nine of his game-high 16 points and the Firebirds never looked back. Central Prairie led by as many as 30 points over the final two periods.

“Chris (Fayville) played well the whole game, defensively as well. He’s a senior and has the most experience of anyone out there,” Erbele said. “He really wanted it and it showed. He attacked the basketball well and got after it on the defensive end.”

Knodel and Nic Moser each finished the game with 13 points and eight rebounds. The Firebirds outrebounded the Rebels 36-17 in the game, but did end the night with seven more turnovers than the Rebels (17-10).

Edgeley-Kulm was paced by Taylor Erickson with 11 points and Alex Knudson with 10. Knudson got off to a fast start to the game, scoring seven of his 10 points in the first period.

Charlie Taylor had six points and six rebounds for Edgeley-Kulm.

“It was a team effort tonight. We had nine guys contributing significantly,” Erbele said. “It makes it fun when the whole team is involved.”

The Firebirds will meet Ellendale in the championship game, while Edgeley-Kulm (7-14) will face Barnes County North (3-18) in a region qualifier at 6:15 p.m.

BCN 59, P-B-K 46

Barnes County North’s Tucker Bartlett scored 17 of his game-high 27 points in the first half, as the Bison kept their season alive by taking down Pingree-Buchanan-Kensal by 13 points in Saturday’s loser-out game.

Bartlett knocked down five three pointers in the game — three of which came in the first period — to help the Bison to a 17-15 lead at the end of one. The Bison were trailing 17-15 in the first until Bartlett’s final trey of the period went through the cylinder as time expired in the quarter.

“We were a little stagnant in the first quarter, but in the second we picked it up,” BCN coach Stacy Schaffer said. “First we needed to penetrate to get the defense honest, and then we were able to knock down some outside shots.

“Tucker (Bartlett) had a good day. He came out and hit some shots, and he also passes well. He’s exactly the type of kid we need out there. He sees the floor well.”

The Bison extended the lead to 30-23 at the half, behind four points from Cody Christ and a three-pointer by Kyle Heinze with 15 seconds left before the break.

P-B-K’s Cale Thomas scored 15 of his team-high 26 points in the first half, keeping the Rebels close.

“Defensively, we tried to contain Cale as much as we could, and I thought our help defense was pretty good on that,” Schaffer said.

After the half, the Bison stayed in control the rest of the way. The Bison converted 21 of 52 shots from the floor for 40.4 percent in the game, while the Rebels finished shooting 18 of 48 from the field for 37.5 percent.

BCN dominated the boards, outrebounding the Rebels 37-28, while winning the turnover battle 13-11.

Justin Magee hauled in 11 boards to lead the Bison, while teammate Tanner Hovland ended the night with eight points.

To go along with Thomas’ 26 points, the Rebels’ Scott Bennett posted 10 points and nine rebounds.

The Rebels’ season came to a close with an overall record of 1-20. BCN moves on to tonight’s region qualifier against Edgeley-Kulm at 6:15 p.m.

District 5 Boys’ Basketball Tournament

At Jamestown Civic Center

Saturday

Loser-out

Barnes County North 59, Pingree-Buchanan-Kensal 46

BCN 17 30 45 59

P-B-K 15 23 36 46

BCN—Tucker Bartlett 27, Tanner Hovland 8, Justin Magee 6, Kyle Heinze 6, Tyler McFadgen 5, Cody Christ 4, Jordan Undem 3. Totals: 21-52 FG, 10-17 FT, 15 fouls. Three-pointers: Bartlett 5, Heinze 1, Undem 1.

P-B-K—Cale Thomas 26, Scott Bennett 10, Chris Kotzer 8, Aaron Vigesaa 2. Totals: 18-48 FG, 9-11 FT, 17 fouls. Three-pointers: Thomas 1.

Records: Barnes County North 3-18; Pingree-Buchanan-Kensal 1-20.

Semifinals

Central Prairie 65, Edgeley-Kulm 44

Edgeley-Kulm 10 18 27 44

Central Prairie 12 35 53 65

Edgeley-Kulm—Taylor Erickson 11, Alex Knudson 10, Charlie Taylor 6, Travis Jones 5, Justin Rott 4, Andrew Elhard 4, Beau Diegel 2, Dalton Toay 2. Totals: 18-47 FG, 6-12 FT, 11 fouls. Three-pointers: Erickson 1, Knudson 1.

Central Prairie—Chris Fayville 16, Nic Moser 13, Brock Knodel 13, Aaron Moser 6, August Heupel 6, Michael Heinrich 4, Dacotah Dockter 3, Stan Johnson 2, Chance Loock 2. Totals: 24-46 FG, 11-13 FT, 13 fouls. Three-pointers: Fayville 2, Knodel 2, Dockter 1, N. Moser 1.

Records: Central Prairie 16-3; Edgeley-Kulm 7-14.

Ellendale 70, Litchville-Marion-Montpelier 68

Ellendale 21 35 53 70

L-M-M 14 31 46 68

Ellendale—Nolan Hamar 20, Michael Redlin 18, Tanner White 13, Ty Bommersbach 9, Kris Lauder 4, Joshua Morrissey 2, Andrew Tschosik 2, Taylar Hack 2. Totals: 26-53 FG, 15-23 FT, 17 fouls. Three-pointers: Redlin 2, Bommersbach 1.

L-M-M—Dillon Carpenter 20, Trevor Tollefson 13, Chad Limesand 12, Brandon Larson 8, Travis Brandvold 5, Austin Smith 4, Ryan Hendrickson 4, Eric Velure 2. Totals: 28-63 FG, 10-17 FT, 17 fouls. Three-pointers: Brandvold 1, Tollefson 1.

Records: Ellendale 13-8; Litchville-Marion-Montpelier 10-11.

Sun sports writer Michael Savaloja can be reached at (701) 952-8461 or by email at mikes@jamestownsun.com

Tags: class b, central prairie, district 5, sports, basketball, ellendale, boys