Rebels take down Wolves, clear regional opening round

Paxton Mathern's put back to beat the halftime buzzer encapsulated quarterfinal night of the Region 3 boys basketball tournament at the Jamestown Civic Center.

All four teams that advanced dominated the glass, and, more importantly, the offensive glass.

Mathern led Edgeley/Kulm/Montpelier with nine rebounds -- five of the offensive variety -- in a 67-55 EKM victory over Kidder County. The 6-foot senior guard finished ahead of 6-6 Alex Huber (8 rebounds) and 6-7 Chayse Entzi (6) in Monday night's key department for the defending Region 3 champion Rebels.

The Rebels are moving on to play Oakes in Tuesday's semifinals at 7:30 p.m.

"The two biggest things that we compliment ourselves on is rebounding and defense," Mathern said. "Defense wins championships and rebounding wins games."

The Rebels led a determined back of Wolves by double figures at the break, 34-23, thanks to Mathern's put back -- part of a 16-4 EKM run to close the half, as well as 23 second-chance points scored by the Rebels in the game -- and he'd go on to drill a pair of big 3-pointers in the third quarter to help maintain an 11-point advantage, 50-39, after three.

EKM got key contributions in the second half from others besides its main man Huber, who scored 14 of his team-high 24 points before the break. EKM junior Adam Nitschke scored nine of 13 points in the second half, and Entzi tossed in six during a pivotal 13-1 fourth-quarter EKM run that essentially put the game away.

"We're not going to get any further unless we get a complete team effort," said EKM coach Kevin Strobel. "Whether it's scoring, rebounding, defending, we need everybody and it's nice if we can get two, or three, or four guys in double figures. That just takes a little bit of pressure off of (Huber)."

Nitschke (13 points), Entzi (12) and Mathern (10) all reached double figures in scoring. The Rebels led by as many as 19 points in the fourth before KC made a run with all reserves on the court in the final minutes.

"Alex scores most of our points, but anyone can step up at any time," Mathern said. "That's what's great about our team."

Kidder County tried to keep pace behind 42% shooting and seven 3-pointers knocked down between Jayden Rath, Payton Cauthon, Ryan Nicholson, Brock Nicholson and Ryan Boots. But the Rebels' length and physicality became a problem.

"The boards," said Kidder County coach Brent Stroh. "We just couldn't clean up the boards and we had that talk before this game, seeing what was happening with Napoleon and Oakes."

Oakes dominated Napoleon/Gackle-Streeter on the glass 42-17 -- 26-6 offensively -- in a 76-51 victory over the Imperials just prior to the Wolves' clash with the No. 4-ranked Rebels.

"We just didn't have the ponies to hold her down," Stroh said. "But that was a good game, they played hard."

Jayden Rath, a senior guard, left it all on the court, finishing with a game-high 21 points on 9 of 16 shooting from the field and 2 of 3 at the foul line.

"It's been a joy coaching him," Stroh said. "He's just an exceptional kid, an exceptional athlete. He just laid it all out there and It's gonna be tough to lose him."

The Wolves will also lose seniors Cauthon, Jonah Harter, Ryan Nicholson, Boot and Jacob Nolan, who helped the team close the regular season with seven wins in eight games. Kidder County wrapped up the season at 12-11.

"No regrets, that's what I told them," Stroh said. "I mean if you're going to go out, go out with no regrets."

Strobel applauded the effort. EKM took down KC by 20 points before Christmas

"Kidder County was scrappy," Strobel said. "We had to work for everything we got tonight and I'll give those kids a lot of credit over there, but we gotta come ready to play tomorrow and play a little bit better than we did tonight."

The Rebels defeated Oakes by eight points on Jan. 22 in Edgeley and should be in for a dogfight after having their 12-game winning streak snapped last week by LaMoure/Litchville-Marion in the semifinals of the District 5 tournament.

LLM is also in Tuesday's semifinals and will play Linton/HMB at 6 p.m.

"It's the whole team out there you have to worry about," Strobel said of Oakes. "We played them earlier and it was tight, so I'm expecting the same thing tomorrow. It's going to be a pretty good battle."

EKM had its Class B state tournament tickets tore up last season by COVID-19. Mathern didn't mince words when asked what the Rebels needed to do in order to win a second straight Region 3 tournament title this week.

"Win two more games."

Edgeley/Kulm/Montpelier 67, Kidder County 55

EKM 14 18 18 17 -- 67

KC 13 10 16 16 -- 55

EKM -- Alex Huber 24, Adam Nitschke 13, Chayse Entzi 12, Paxton Mathern 10, Dalton Madcke 6, Jorgen Paulson 2. Totals: 28-55 FG, 4-11 3-pointers (Mathern 2, Madcke 2), 7-8 FT, 36 Rebounds (Mathern 9, Nitschke 8, Huber 8), 12 Fouls, 12 Assists (Huber 3, Madcke 3, Mathern 3), 8 Turnovers, 6 Steals (Entzi 3), 4 Steals (4 with 1).

KC -- Jayden Rath 21, Payton Cauthon 8, Ryan Nicholson 8, Ryan Boots 6, Luke Rath 4, Jacob Nolan 3, Brock Nicholson 3, Collin Zimmerman 2. Totals: 22-53 FG, 7-20 3-pointers (R. Nicholson 2, Boots 2, B. Nicholson, Cauthon, J. Rath), 4-10 FT, 25 Rebounds (L. Rath 9), 14 Fouls, 2 Assists (Blake Braun, Cauthon), 6 Turnovers, 1 Block (B. Nicholson), 4 Steals (Cauthon, B. Nicholson, L. Rath, Boots).

Records: Edgeley/KM 20-2. Kidder Co. 12-11.

Region 3 Boys Basketball Tournament

(Tournament seeding/records in parentheses)

At Jamestown Civic Center

March 8

G1: (D6-1) Linton/HMB 55, (D5-4) Ellendale 53

G2: (D5-2) LaMoure/LM 71, (D6-3) Strasburg/Zeeland 40

G3: (D5-1) Oakes 76, (D6-4) Napoleon/GS 51

G4: (D5-3) Edgeley/KM 67, (D6-2) Kidder Co. 55

March 9

G5: Linton/HMB (19-3) vs. LaMoure/LM (16-7), 6 p.m.

G6: Oakes (17-6) vs. Edgeley/KM (20-2), 7:30 p.m.

March 11

Championship: G5 winner vs. G6 winner, 7 p.m.