Cardinals tame Tigers, advance to semifinals

BRAINERD -The Cromwell-Wright boys basketball team survived a couple of comeback attempts by their Section 5A quarterfinal opponent Tuesday night but held off Browerville-

Eagle Valley 47-42.

The Cardinal win set up a

rematch against Nevis in the north subsection championship (essentially the section semifinals) in Brainerd Wednesday night, a game that was not finished when The Pine Knot News went to press.

On Tuesday, Cromwell-Wright saw a nine-point lead disappear early in the second half, when B-EV scored on a basket-and-one to go up 24-22. That was followed by a 12-0 Cardinal run of four straight three-pointers to make it a 34-24 contest. That lead eventually dwindled to where the Cards were up by just one possession late, before a couple of Micah

Pocernich free throws in the final minutes gave Cromwell-Wright some breathing room. The Tigers had a couple of last-ditch threes go off the mark before the final horn sounded.

"This team has a lot of character. It is a competitive group," said Cromwell-Wright head coach Bill Pocernich. "We didn't play our best tonight, but I sense they (Browerville) had a lot to do with that, because for two years in a row they made it into a grinder."

Cromwell and Browerville met in last year's quarterfinal round as well, with the Cardinals prevailing in two overtimes.

The Cardinals coach praised the defensive work by the Tigers

"I thought we were out of character a little bit in the first half," he said. "They were beating us to loose balls and the rebounds. That changed in the second half."

Junior guard Micah Pocernich finished with a team-high 12 points (including two threes). Senior forward Cameron Cahoon added eight points. Senior guard Zak Irsfeld of Browerville had the most points with 17, scoring 12 of those in the second half.

Marcus Pocernich (nine points and four fouls) said they made the adjustments following halftime.

"We were losing momentum, they were making some plays, but we hit a few threes and that really got us back into it," the senior guard said. "We decided we needed to make plays on the offensive end, continue to play aggressive defense, and rebound. We were able to do that in the second half."

Coach Pocernich said it hurt when Marcus got into foul trouble.

"He's never been in foul trouble for pretty much his entire career, so that was new for us," he said. "But the kids battled through it and made the plays. It's survive and advance."

The game site had been in question for about a day and a half, since a predicted winter storm prompted section officials to call off the quarterfinal round Saturday and reschedule it for Monday. The game was originally slated for Pequot Lakes, then was moved to Crosby. Because 7AA boys games were also postponed Saturday, higher-seeded teams in that section were awarded home games. So then Crosby was out because that school was still alive in the section and a higher-seeded team. Then the location was moved to Wadena, and, finally, they settled on the more centrally located Brainerd High School.

"I have to give our (activities director) Dave Foster and superintendent Nathan Libbon a lot of credit for taking care of that behind the scenes so we could focus on coaching, but we would've played on the moon if we had to," Pocernich said.

Nevis and C-W met in last year's semifinals, with the Cardinals winning 55-50. The two teams also locked horns during the regular season this year, with C-W taking a win at home, 67-55.