Vikings rise, 'Jackets fall in 8AA

Kraig Hunter's pride in his West Central Area basketball team did not dim one iota Monday night after a 59-56 loss to Pelican Rapids in the Section 8AA quarterfinals.

Published 12:00 a.m., March 12, 2002

Kraig Hunter's pride in his West Central Area basketball team did not dim one iota Monday night after a 59-56 loss to Pelican Rapids in the Section 8AA quarterfinals. The Knights were battling the emotional handicap of having the father of one of their teammates, Danny Willard, in the hospital with a brain aneurysm. "There has been a lot of stuff out of our control but our kids have really handled it well," said Hunter. Sparked by the brilliant play of Joe Johnson, the Vikings grabbed an early lead but saw it shrink to five, 25-20, by the half. Johnson hit on six treys and scored a game-high 29 points. The Knights rallied from 13 points down to go on top in the second half but the Vikings took advantage of West Central's foul trouble to go 22 of 3l at the free throw line. Dusty Radke led the Knights with 19 points. Eric Reiner and Mike Boyack fouled out with nine points apiece. Radke grabbed 13 boards as West Central out-rebounded Pelican Rapids 37-33. The 17-9 Vikings will now face Section 8AA's top northern division team, Bagley, in a 5 p.m. game Thursday at Concordia College in Moorhead. The Knights end their season with a 17-7 mark. PELICAN RAPIDS (59) J. Ottoson 7, L. Rengstorf 2, T. Lage 9, J. Johnson 29, C. Restad 4, B. Tollerud (8) Totals: 9/7 22-31 59 WEST CENTRAL AREA (56) A. Johnson 8, D. Willard 3, N. Thompson 4, D. Radke 19, E. Reiner 9, E. Richards 4, M. Boyack 9. Totals: 14/3 19-30 56 Pelican Rapids 11 14 9 25 - 59 WCA 10 10 17 19 - 56 Total Fouls: Pelican Rapids 20, WCA 24 Fouled Out: B. Tollerud (PR), M. Boyack, E. Reiner (WCA) Staples-Motley 59, Perham 47 Lynn Peterson's top-ranked club broke out of a tight game in the second half to oust the Yellowjackets from Section 8AA play. The Cardinals were 14 of 17 at the line. Bobby Burton paced the Cardinals with with 19 points while Kyle Bendson added 15 and Dave Lund tacked up 11. Mark Lindberg and Kyle Gustafson were high point men for Perham with 14 and 12 points respectively. The Yellowjackets end their season with a 12-14 record. The Cards take a 17-9 mark into Thursday's 8 p.m. semifinal game with Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton at Concordia College. PERHAM (47) M. Lindberg 14, K. Gustafson 12, L. Stritt 7, B. Winter 2, R. Babler 6, B. McIntire 4, N. Overland 2. Totals: 13/4 9-15 47 STAPLES-MOTLEY (59) B. Burton 19, N. Doll 2, A. Barnett 8, K. Bendson 15, D. Lund 11, J. Smith 4. Totals: 21/1 14-17 59 Perham 10 7 16 14 - 49 S-M 13 6 21 19 - 59 Total Fouls: Perham 19, S-M 17 Hillcrest 58, Brandon-Evansville 40 Gregg Preston's Comets held the Chargers to single-digit scoring for the first three periods en route to a big quarterfinal victory over their final Little Eight Conference foe. The defensive-minded Comets held Brandon-Evansville sharpshooter Nate Meissner to 12 points by keeping several players on him all evening. Meissner was able to score only four points through the first three quarters. "We thought he was the key," said Preston. "We had several different guys follow his every move." Joe Schuman was the only other Charger in double figures with 11 points. The Comets enjoyed one of their best shooting nights of the year hitting on 65 percent of their attempts against Brandon-Evansville's zone. Nine different players scored for Hillcrest led by Luke Hansen (11) and J.P. Stender (10), who had excellent games offensively and defensively. Hansen and Josiah Larson hit a pair of treys for the Comets while Steve Moline connected on one. The 22-1 Comets will now face Henning in an 8 p.m. game Tuesday night at the University of Minnesota-Morris. The two clubs have not met since last year's Section 5A semifinals. HILLCREST (58) S. Moline 3, T. Brue 2, T. Scheid 9, D. Hammer 2, L. Hansen 11, J.P. Stender 10, J. Larson 8, N. Hansen 7, W. Stender 6. Totals: 18/5 7-13 58 BRANDON-EVANSVILLE (40) N. Meissner 12, M. Bruns 5, T. Budke 4, N. McFarlane 2, J. Schuman 11, R. Haseman 6. Totals: 12/1 13-18 40 Hillcrest 16 11 14 17 - 58 B-E 9 8 8 15 - 40 Total Fouls: Hillcrest 7, B-E 13 Henning 60, Bertha-Hewitt 51 Ben Vogt poured in 20 points and grabbed 12 rebounds as the Hornets defeated the Bears. The 6-8 senior, who topped the 1,000-point scoring mark earlier this season, was 6-for-6 at the foul line in the vital fourth period. Mike Hawes also had superb shooting game for Henning with 19 points. Henning grabbed a 16-7 lead after one period but the Bears out-scored them 32-26 in the middle quarters. The Hornets preserved the victory by going 15 of 23 at the foul line. "We had the size of them," said Henning head coach Neal Oscarson, who had 6-6 Darin Deckert to back up Vogt. "They shot very well but (Darrin) Kuhnke, one of their best scorers, was out with a sprained ankle." Bertha-Hewitt's tallest player is 6-2 freshman Matt Hartung. Derek Dahms led the Bears with 14 points while Andy Rach scored 10. The second-ranked Hornets are now 20-4 going into Tuesday night's game with top-ranked Hillcrest at UMM in Morris. Game time is set for 8 p.m. BERTHA-HEWITT (51) J. Wilhelmi 2, D. Dahms 14, K. Zirbes 5, A. Kirscht 9, J. Wiese 1, A. Rach 10, S. Hoemberg 8, J. Payne 2. Totals: 19/3 4-9 51 HENNING (60) L. Johnson 6, G. Seipkes 1, M. Hawes 19, M. Peyerl 9, J. Trites 4, N. Ellenson 1, B. Vogt 20. Totals: 16/4 15-23 60 B-H 7 11 21 12 - 51 Henning 16 14 12 18 - 60 Total Fouls : B-H 17, Henning 14

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