Local teams can't get past playoff hump day

ast Wednesday night, March 6, was a tough night for local Section 7A boys basketball teams. Wrenshall, Fond du Lac, Carlton and South Ridge all lost and were eliminated from the tournament.

Lakeview Christian Academy-82

Carlton-63

The Lions roared to a five-point lead and then continued the roll into the second half, staking themselves to a spot in the quarterfinals. Matt and Jacob Santkuyl led the Bulldogs with 23 and 20 points respectively, but the Bulldogs could not overcome the depth of scoring for the Lions, who had five players in double-digit scoring.

Jacob Easty led the Lions with 24 points, followed by Brandon Barbee with 18 points, and Spicer Johnson with 16; Bennett Easty had 14, and Lance Puffer scored 10 points.

Rounding out the scoring for the Bulldogs were Scott Rousseau with nine points, Ryan Gray with five, Trevor Ojibway four and Justin Swanson with two points.

Chisholm-71

Fond du Lac-57

Both Eli Sundquist and Alec Passenda tossed in 17 points to lead the Blue Streaks to the victory over the Ogichidaa.

Double-digit scorers for FDL included Avery Misquadace with 15 points, Jesus Delepaz with 12 and Conner Barney with 10 points.

The Ogichidaa kept the game tight and trailed by just eight points, 39-31, at halftime, but the Blue Streaks were able to slowly pull away in the second half.

Also scoring for FDL were Jason Fineday with seven points, four each for Jordan Brown and Jalen Paulson, Uriah Aubid with three points and Simon LaPrairie with two.

North Woods-88

South Ridge-46

The Grizzlies, the top-seeded team in Section 7A, zoomed out to a 53-26 halftime lead and never looked back as four North Woods players hit double digits in scoring.

"We knew that we needed to break their press and limit turnovers," South Ridge coach Joaquim Harris said. "We were successful for the first nine minutes, but they are a talented team with a lot of height coming off their bench. We just weren't able to match up with them inside and they were able to use their inside game to open their outside game."

Ben Wood was the only Panther in double-digit scoring with 14 points. Nick Larson had six points for South Ridge, and Joey Janke, Jayton Nelson and Kayden Palmi all scored four each. The Panthers also got three points from Weston Stroschein and Jaxson Bennett, while Tristan Johnson, Brant Erickson, Deekon Anvid and Aaron Bennett each recorded two points.

Nashwauk-Keewatin-86

Wrenshall-69

With a distinct height advantage, the Spartans powered the ball inside and gave the much smaller Wrens a matchup problem on the defensive side of the ball.

"They just started forcing the ball inside to their big man," said Wrens coach Jon Bartczak. "He was their leading scorer and we had a lot of fouls early. In the first half it was 14 fouls to their two fouls."

Eventually the Wrens made some adjustments and got some solid outside shooting from both Hunter Holmes and Mason Perry, but it wasn't enough.

Wrenshall will graduate four players this year: Jared Kelly, William Bird, Eli Krisak and Chase Duncan.

"It was a rough start to the season, but we rounded out at the right time," Bartczak said. "We had a lot of close losses to start the season and it also didn't help with losses on half-court buzzer-beaters. Once February got here, our season really took off. With Will back, we gained a lot of momentum, winning a few games when we were big underdogs. We put together a 10-win season and if you were to have seen our record in December and January, you would not have thought that was possible."