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JAMESTOWN — The second semifinal of the Stutsman County Boys Basketball Tournament was a fast-paced game in which the longest run was a 10-3 run for Medina/Pingree-Buchanan. The Thunder carried that run to a 46-36 win over Edgeley/Kulm-Montpelier on Friday, Jan. 6, at the Jamestown Civic Center.
“I was happy with the effort,” Rebels head coach Kevin Strobel said. “The kids played hard, you always want to see that part of it. You don’t want to see them go through the motions and we didn’t. I thought we played. I thought we defended pretty well, just offensively we broke down. (We) just gotta do a better job of executing in the half-court set.”
The first quarter was a tight one as the Rebels’ Jacob Nitschke hit a layup to cut the deficit to 10-9 with 1:15 to go in the opening quarter. The second quarter saw the Thunder pull away as Sawyer Wanzek hit a layup to make it 21-15 with 4:50 to go in the first half.
“I think we were really hungry tonight,” Thunder head coach Bob Young said. “We got off to a slow start last night so we attributed it to our second game, maybe nerves being in the Civic Center for the first time this year. So, tonight we just wanted to turn that around and have a different start and that’s something we talked about before the game.”
Midway through the third quarter, the Thunder’s Gage Magstadt grabbed an offensive rebound, hit the putback, and drew the foul to push his team’s lead out to 28-23. After the Thunder lead ballooned out to 34-23, Nitschke put an end to the run with a layup to cut the deficit to 34-26.
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The fourth quarter saw the Thunder’s Rylen Wick go into takeover mode as he hit multiple big shots to finish the day with 15 points with 10 of them coming in the second half. Wick put the game out of reach with a layup to make it 40-28 with six and a half minutes to go.
The Thunder are back in action at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, Jan 7, when they face Ellendale. The Rebels are back in action at 5 p.m. on Jan. 7, when they take on South Border.
The Thunder matchup against the Cardinals is a rematch of the 2022 Stutsman County Tournament championship game in which the Cardinals won 54-42.
“The night after our first day of practice, we sat down and talked about our goals, short-term goals and long-term goals,” Young said. “One of our goals was to win the Stutsman County Tournament. We get a chance to get back at the opportunity we didn’t quite capture last year. So, we’re excited and we’ll be here tomorrow night to compete as hard as we can, and hopefully, we can get it done.”
E/K-M 36, M/P-B 46
E/K-M: 9 11 6 10–36
M/P-B: 10 15 10 11–46
Points leaders:
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E/K-M: Dylan Carlson 13, Jacob Nitschke 12, Austin Strobel 5, Zeke Barnick 5
M/P-B: Josh Moser 15, Rylen Wick 15, Sawyer Wanzek 9
Assists leaders:
E/K-M: Braeden Kinzler 3, Carlson 2, Strobel 2
M/P-B: Wick 2, Chase Ova 1
Leading rebounders:
E/K-M: Barnick 10, Nitschke 5, Carlson 5
M/P-B: Moser 11, Wick 5, Gage Magstadt 5
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Full bracket below:
Day One Games:
D-5 No. 1 Ellendale 61 vs. D-6 No. 4 Kidder County 35
D-6 No. 2 South Border 50 vs. D-5 No. 3 Carrington 39
D-6 No. 1 Medina/Pingree-Buchanan 45 vs. D-5 No. 4. Griggs-Midkota 39,
D-5 No. 2 Edgeley/Kulm-Montpelier 54 vs. D-6 No. 3 Napoleon/Gackle-Streeter 48
Day Two Games:
D-6 No. 4 Kidder County 25 vs. D-5 No. 3 Carrington 54
D-5 No. 5 Griggs-Midkota 51 vs. D-6 No. 3 Napoleon/Gackle-Streeter 45
D-5 No. 1 Ellendale 72 vs. D-6 No. 2 South Border 47
D-6 No. 1 Medina/Pingree-Buchanan 46 vs. D-5 No. 2 Edgeley/Kulm-Montpelier 36
Day Three Games:
D-6 No. 4 Kidder County vs. D-6 No. 3 Napoleon/Gackle-Streeter, 2 p.m.
D-5 No. 3 Carrington vs. D-5 No. 4 Griggs-Midkota, 3:30 p.m.
D-6 No. 2 South Border vs. D-5 No. 2 Edgeley/Kulm-Montpelier, 5 p.m.
D-5 No. 1 Ellendale vs. D-6 No. 1 Medina/Pingree-Buchanan, 6:30 p.m.
