Boys' basketball: Minnewaska, Osakis, West Central Area fall

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MELROSE 83, MINNEWASKA 48

State-ranked Melrose cruised to a victory over Minnewaska Friday night as Scottie Stone had six three-point shots to lead the Dutchmen.

Minnewaska couldn’t keep up with the Dutchmen’s firepower as Melrose held a 62-21 halftime lead.

Along with Stone’s 32 points, Isaac Sawyer had 15 and Ben Klaphake added 12 for the Dutchmen who improved to 3-0 on the season as they’ve averaged a 30-point margin of victory through those games.

Minnewaska was led by Jake Amundson with 14 points and Austin Lieser with 12 points and seven rebounds.

The Lakers now have to face defending Class A champion Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa on Friday night. The Jaguars are ranked No. 2 in their class in the most recent polls.

MELROSE 83, MINNEWASKA 48

MELROSE 62 21 — 83

MINNEWASKA 21 27 — 48

MELROSE – Isaac Sawyer 15, Ben Klaphake 12, Ryan Elfering 4, Alex Borgerding 3, Scottie Stone 32, Mitch Reller 9, Ty Reller 2, Nathan Goebel 2, Mitch Niehaus. Field goals 30-54, 3-pt 14-25, Free throws 9-15, Rebounds 38, Fouls 9.

MINNEWASKA – Derek Burd 4, Austin Lieser 12, Jake Amundson 14, Austin Giese 6, TYLER Nielsen 2, Austin Ostrander 6, Andrew Kinney 2, Jayden Beecher 2, Will Formo 2. Field goals 18-57, 3-pt 5-19 (Lieser 2, Amundson 2, Giese 1), Free throws 9-7-9, Rebounds 32 (Lieser 7, Isaiah Adams 6, Jake Amudnson 5. Assists 11 (Beecher 4, Ostrander 3), Steals 7 (Amundson 2, Giese 2), Turnovers 14.

LONG PRAIRIE-GREY EAGLE 71, OSAKIS 25

The Osakis boys couldn’t keep up with Long Prairie-Grey Eagle in a game that saw the Thunder run away with things early on their way to a 71-26 win.

Long Prairie never let the Silverstreaks get going in the opening half. The Thunder led 39-14 at the break and continued to outscore Osakis 32-12 after halftime.

“Long Prairie is athletic and we couldn’t match up with that,” Osakis head coach Matt Hoelscher said. “We had too many turnovers that led to easy transition points for them.”

Doug Zimmel led Osakis with eight points. Lane Berberich and Kilar Zimmel each added five on a night when the Silverstreaks shot just 33 percent from the field. Thirty turnovers limited them to just 24 shot attempts in the game.

The loss dropped them to 0-5 on the season. They were scheduled to be back at home last night, Thursday, against Bertha-Hewitt before welcoming in Battle Lake for a 3:30 tip on Saturday, December 29.

GAME STATISTICS

OSAKIS 14 12 – 26

LPGE 39 32 – 71

TOTALS – Osakis – FG – 8-24; Three-point FG – 3-10; Assists – 5; Blocks – 1; Rebounds – 18; Steals – 3; Turnovers – 30

OSAKIS – Berberich – 5 points, 1 assist, 2 steals; K. Zimmel – 5 points, 2 rebounds, 1 steal; Hunter Scherr – 2 assists, 1 rebound; Brandon Giesler – 2 points, 1 rebound; Drew Fearing – 4 points, 1 rebound; Joey Kotek – 5 rebounds; John Piekarski – 2 points, 1 block, 3 rebounds; D. Zimmel – 8 points, 2 assists, 5 rebounds

BROWERVILLE 74, WEST CENTRAL AREA 58

The West Central Area boys’ basketball team ran into a hot-shooting Browerville team as the ninth-ranked Tigers beat the Knights 74-58 last Thursday.

Browerville used two three-pointers and a bucket off an offensive rebound to turn a two-point lead into a 36-28 advantage at the break. The Tigers carried that momentum into the second half as they pushed their lead to 15 early on. The Knights cut it back to a 54-47 game, but couldn’t get much closer as the Tigers held on for the win.

“We are disappointed that we let some good opportunities slip away,” head coach Kraig Hunter said. “We had chances to be right there. However, this game is over, and we can take a lot of things from playing a veteran team like Browerville…you also have to give them a lot of credit. They play very efficiently and shoot the ball very well.”

Browerville hit 8-of-10 shots from beyond the arc and went 27-of-46 overall. The Knights countered with a 21-of-45 shooting night and a solid 8-of-16 night from three that wasn’t quite enough.

Dakotah Kashmark and Austin Redepenning were the only two WCA players in double figures with 24 and 11 points, respectively. The Tigers had four players in double figures, led by Kyle Petermeier’s 19.

GAME STATISTICS

WCA 28 30 – 58

BROWERVILLE 36 38 – 74

TOTALS – WCA – FG – 21-45; Three-point FG – 8-16; Free throws – 6-6; Rebounds – 16; Turnovers – 18; Browerville – FG – 27-46; Three-point FG – 8-10; Free throws – 8-10; Rebounds – 25; Turnovers – 15

WCA – Kashmark – 24 points, 7 rebounds; Redepenning – 11 points; Drew Peterson – 6 points, 7 assists, 3 steals; Alex Toms – 5 points; Andrew Lindor – 4 points; Brady Combs – 4 points; Jay Zimmerman – 4 points

BROWERVILLE – Petermeier – 19 points, 8 rebounds; Brad Dreher – 16 points; Mitch Heid – 13 points, 4 assists, 4 steals; Trent Johnson – 10 points

Tags: minnewaska sports, osakis sports, west central area sports, sports, lakers, silverstreaks, knights, boys, basketball