Basketball roundup: Osakis boys win 11th straight ahead of battle with unbeaten Morris

The Osakis boys basketball team jumped out to a 37-7 lead by the half against St. John’s Prep on Thursday night and cruised to another Prairie Conference win.

The Silverstreaks (15-2, 5-0 Prairie Conference) have now won 11 straight games heading into a matchup with undefeated Morris Area on Saturday after the 64-23 win over the Johnnies (4-12, 0-5 Prairie).

“Pretty efficient game all around for us as we played great defense in the first half by only allowing 7 points,” Osakis head coach Matt Hoelscher said. “We applied great pressure, rotated well in our traps, and limited them to one shot. Our transition was our best offense right away, but then Isaac (Maddock) got hot from the corner and it really opened things up for us.”

Maddock was 3-of-5 from three and finished with 11 points. Senior Bauer Klimek added 20 points and a team-high 4 steals.

“Drew (Imdieke) had some great passes against their zone,” Hoelscher said. “Bauer started making shots after a slow start and then things started clicking for everyone.”

The Silverstreaks now head into perhaps their toughest test of the season so far. Morris Area-Chokio-Alberta is 17-0 and ranked fifth in the QRF at the Class AA level through Minnesota-scores.net. Osakis plays the Tigers at 3:45 p.m. on Saturday as part of the Breakdown Winter Lakes Classic at Alexandria Area High School.

“We will have our hands full, but we are excited for the challenge and I'm looking forward to see how our guys respond,” Hoelscher said.

OSAKIS                      37 27 - 64

ST. JOHN’S PREP     7 16 - 23

OSAKIS TOTALS - FG - 26-57; Three-point FG - 8-25; FT - 4-6; Assists - 16; Blocks - 3; Rebounds - 40; Steals - 11; Turnovers - 8

OSAKIS - Stewart Jones - 9 points, 6 rebounds, 2 steals; Grant Mages - 6 points, 1 assist, 6 rebounds; Tyler Hagen - 4 points, 1 assist, 2 rebounds; Isaac Maddock - 11 points, 1 assist, 2 rebounds; Bauer Klimek - 20 points, 1 assist, 1 block, 3 rebounds, 4 steals; Drew Imdieke - 2 points, 7 assists, 2 steals; Jacob Johanson - 1 block, 2 rebounds; Marcus Wolf - 1 point, 3 rebounds; Mekai Hoelscher - 6 points, 2 assists, 2 rebounds, 1 steal; Carter Watnaas - 6 points, 1 assist, 1 block, 7 rebounds, 1 steal; Brady Mages - 3 points, 2 assists, 7 rebounds, 1 steal

The St. Cloud Crush edged the Alexandria girls basketball team for the second time this season after winning a 68-64 game on Thursday night.

The Crush (10-9, 4-5 Central Lakes Conference) also won a 62-59 game against the Cardinals (8-9, 4-5 CLC) on Dec. 10.

“It was neck and neck the entire game with the Crush getting the last run, forcing us to foul to extend the game,” Alexandria head coach Wendy Kohler said of Thursday’s game.

Hadley Thul had 25 points for Alexandria, and Tessa McGrane added 13.

The Cardinals will face Marshall (15-4) on Saturday night at 7 at AAHS as part of the Breakdown Winter Lakes Classic .

ST. CLOUD 68, ALEXANDRIA 64

ALEXANDRIA - Hadley Thul - 25 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists; Tessa McGrane - 13 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists; Chloe Scholl - 9 points, 7 rebounds; Lilly Thul - 7 points, 3 assists; Allie Haabala - 7 points, 3 assists; MaCee Linow - 3 points, 3 assists

The Battle Lake girls basketball team (13-5, 8-1 Little Eight Conference) continued its winning season by beating Brandon-Evansville (8-8, 3-5 LEC) in a 73-53 game on Thursday.

Grace Van Erp led the Battlers with 19 points. Ady Tysdal finished with 18 and Morgan Malone made it three in double figures for Battle Lake with 14.

The Chargers got 11 points from Olivia Otto and 8 each from EmmaLee Brethorst and Kylee Dingwall.

“Hats off to Battle Lake as they played a great game,” B-E head coach Zach Traphagen said. “We kept it competitive for the first half and half of the second, but they went on a big run midway through the second half and we couldn’t overcome that. They made a flurry of threes during that run, and we didn’t do a great job of defending it. We can’t expect to beat anyone when we give up 73 points. We will move on and get better.”

BATTLE LAKE 73, BRANDON-EVANSVILLE 53

B-E SCORING - Sophie Koep - 3; Olivia Otto - 11; Sydney Schaefer - 7; Kaytlyn Pattrin - 7; EmmaLee Brethorst - 8; Haddy Baune - 2; Kylee Dingwall - 8; Kiley Lund - 3; Kayla Bitzan-Anderson - 4

(Stats not yet available)

Hillcrest Lutheran (7-8) 56, Parkers Prairie (7-8) 42

Underwood (14-3) 62, Ashby (0-14) 25

(Stats not yet available)

Wheaton-Herman-Norcross (11-4) 61, Parkers Prairie (10-6) 45