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Flyers trample Otters
Published 12:49am Friday, February 5, 2010Flying high after a convincing upset over Willmar last time out, the Fergus Falls boys basketball team was brought back down to Earth Thursday evening against Central Lakes Conference power Little Falls.
A pair of scoring spurts to start both halves coupled with dominant performance from Flyers’ center Dan Kornbaum were too much to overcome as the Otters fell 73-56.
“We drew attention to ourselves with that win against Willmar (last Friday),” said Fergus Falls first-year coach Dave Rund. “Little Falls came in here to remind us that they are the two-time defending section champs. They wanted to make a statement tonight and they did that to start both halves. They wanted to stick us.”
The Flyers (13-5, 9-2 CLC) out-scored the Otters 22-2 in the first five minutes of both halves, which made all the difference in a game that featured scoring runs, hard fouls, fast breaks and, oh yes, Dan Kornbaum.
The gifted 6-foot-8 center tallied a game-high 26 points and ten rebounds while routinely burning the Fergus Falls defense with crisp passes from the blocks to wide open teammates on the perimeter.
“Dan Kornbaum is an excellent player,” Rund said. “You can double team him like we tried to do tonight and he’s a great passer. They do a nice job of moving around him, and when you’re open, he’ll find you.”
Ball-hogging guard Alex Scott was the beneficiary of several Kornbaum passes, nailing a team-high three 3-pointers — two of which came in the game’s first minute — and finishing with 16 points.
Darin Stanislawski led the Otters (3-13, 1-10) with 16 points, 12 of which came from beyond the arc. However, the 6-4 swingman did not make a shot from the field in the game’s final 13 minutes, 52 seconds.
Zach Rengel added 12 points, but his only field goal in the second half came with 28 seconds remaining.
“It was nice for Darin to step out and hit a couple threes,” Rund said. “We needed that, but we also needed another consistent scorer tonight and we really didn’t get that in the second half.”
The Otters answered the Flyers’ 12-2 run to start the game with a 13-6 scoring burst to pull within 18-15. In the rally, Stanislawski nailed a trio of 3-pointers while Rengel added four points.
Little Falls countered with a 9-2 spurt, extending the advantage back to double-digits.
The Otters drew within four points late in the first half following back-to-back treys by Rengel, but allowed Little Falls to score six of the final nine points of the first half to build a 41-34 lead at the break.
The Flyers blew the game open to start the second with quick 10-0 burst.
Little Falls, which deliberately chewed away 1:40 on a single possession early in the second half by holding the ball at the top of the key and making short simple passes, made 12 of its 16 shots from the field in the second and 27 of 45 overall.
Fergus shot 22-for-50 and finished with 20 turnovers.
Junior varsity: The Otters won 49-44 behind Taylor Schuck’s 13 points.
9th grade: Fergus Falls lost 52-34. Reece Johnson scored nine points.
