Basketball roundup: Alex girls shut down Sartell's offense

The Alexandria girls basketball team had its best defensive showing on Thursday, Jan. 5, as it held the Sartell-St. Stephen Sabres to 31 points. Alexandria won the game on the road 49-31.

Alexandria is now on a 3-game winning streak and is 7-3 (5-0 Central Lakes Conference) on the season.

The Cardinals led by two points at halftime but distanced themselves from the Sabres (9-3, 4-1 CLC) in the second half. The Cardinals outrebounded the Sabres by 10 on the night.

Hadley Thul led the Cardinals in scoring with 17 while Allie Haabala had 14, Chloe Scholl had 10, and Morgan Seesz and MaCee Linow both had four points.

Seez and Scholl each had seven rebounds while Thul and Linow both collected six. Haabala led the team in steals with four. Thul had five deflections while Lauren Beyer, Scholl and Haabala had four. McKinley Hoelscher had a team-high two assists in the game.

Alexandria returns home to face Moorhead at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 10.

The Brandon-Evansville boys basketball team played its first home game of the season on Thursday, and won 59-39 over Rothsay to improve to 2-3 on the season.

“I thought we came out a little flat to start the game,” B-E head coach Trent Hintermeister said. “We got some good shots and they just didn't go in early. As the game progressed, we did a better job of taking care of the ball to get higher-quality shots. Dezmond White played a great all-around game. He was getting face guarded and double-teamed all night and he didn't let that affect the rest of his game. We played all 14 players on our roster and eight of them got in the scoring column.”

Micah Fuller led the team in scoring with 17, while White had 10. Aaron Gillespie and Kian Gackle had eight points each, while Brady Perleberg had seven. Nathan Anderson had four points, Stephen Hamilton had three and Lucas Fuller had two.

B-E plays at Henning on Saturday at 2:30 p.m.

Sauk Centre, who is the 13th-ranked team in the Class AA QRF rankings on Minnesota-scores.net, hit the road to face the West Central Area boys basketball team, who is the 19th-ranked team in Class AA, and came out on top 66-58.

"We put up a good fight and our effort was there,” WCA head coach Kraig Hunter said. “They're a good team and they had multiple guys hit big shots."

Matthew Warring led the scoring on the night with 21 points. Jay Nuebert had 17 points for the Mainstreeters, while Andrew Drevlow had nine, Damian Arhrens had seven, Ashton Trisko had five, Corey McCoy had four, and Ethan Riley had three.

The Mainstreeters made 12 out of their 26 three-point attempts and shot 47 percent from the field (24 of 51). The Mainstreeters outrebounded the Knights 39-27.

Mitch Dewey led WCA in scoring 20 points, while Jacob Strunk had 11 and Bryce Kjesbo had 10. Cole Anderson had eight points, while Ben Bye had three, and Nas Dotts, Sam Hanson and Isaac Kreft each had two.

The Knights shot 21 of 49 from the field, nine of 24 from the three-point line, and 7-of-17 from the free throw line.

Anderson led the team in rebounds with seven. Strunk led the team in assists with four, while Kjesbo had three. Dotts, Strunk and Kjesbo had three steals in the game.

WCA (6-2) hosts Minnewaska at 7:30 p.m. on Friday.

The WCA girls also played on Thursday and lost 60-54 to Minnewaska. Claire Stark had 20 points and Macy Grosz had 14 (full stats not yet available).

The Osakis boys held a slim 29-27 lead over Staples-Motley at halftime on Thursday, but outscored Staples-Motley 32-18 in the second half to earn a 61-45 win.

“We had an off-shooting night in the first half and struggled scoring against their zone but Issac [Maddock] got hit the second half and we were able to pull away from a scrappy Staples team,” Osakis head coach Matt Hoelscher said. “We did a better job of finding the hi/lo post players getting us easy looks around the rim. We got outworked in the first half which got us in foul trouble, but the guys persevered and we came away with a win.”

Maddock had a team-high 18 points on the night. Kyle Mages finished with a double-double, 16 points and 12 rebounds.

Osakis (6-1) plays at Royalton on Monday, Jan. 9 at 7:30 p.m.

Staples-Motley - 27 18 - 45

Osakis - 29 32 - 61 

OSAKIS TEAM STATS - FG - 25/52; 3-PT - 8/22; FT - 3/9; Assists - 14; Blocks - 1; Rebounds - 33; Steals - 2; Deflections - 5; Fouls - 10; Turnovers - 12

OSAKIS PLAYER STATS - Stewart Jones - 13 points, 3 assists, 7 rebounds, 1 steal; Grant Mages, 11 points, 1 assist, 1 block, 5 rebounds; Isaac Maddock - 18 points, 2 assists, 1 rebound, 3 deflections; Kyle Mages - 16 points, 1 assist, 12 rebounds, 1 steal, 2 deflections; Drew Imdieke - 6 assists; Marcus Wolf - 3 rebounds; Mekai Hoelscher - 3 points, 1 assist, 2 rebounds

The Osakis girls basketball team had a long wait to get in its fifth game of the season, but it got the chance to play again on Thursday at home against Eden Valley-Watkins.

Osakis led 19-14 at halftime, but Eden Valley-Watkins scored 32 points in the second half, which helped it win 46-41.

“After 16 days without playing a game, the girls were excited about getting back to playing again,” Osakis head coach Pat Kalpin said. This was a good game for our girls with Eden Valley coming in with some good wins this year and experience from last season. From start to finish, the girls worked really hard all night. We played good defense and tried to take away their strengths. Offensively, we took good shots, unfortunately, we didn't have a great shooting night. I felt that we played well enough to win the game. It came down to a few key possessions on both ends of the court and them getting to free throw line more than us. We are very happy with the effort, as it was fun to see them getting a game in again. This team will continue to improve as this season moves forward with hopefully more consistency."

Kiley Kranz was the leading scorer for Osakis as she had 13 points. Taylor Dirkes scored in double figures as well as she had 10 points.

Osakis (2-3) hosts LPGE on Monday at 7:30 p.m.

Eden Valley-Watkins - 14 32 - 46 

Osakis - 19 22 - 41 

OSAKIS TEAM STATS - FG - 16/51; 3-PT - 5/29; FT - 4/7; Rebounds - 28; Assists - 12; Deflections - 4; Steals - 9; Blocks - 2; Turnovers - 14; Fouls - 20

OSAKIS PLAYER STATS - Hailey Walker - 2 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist; Madeline Anderson - 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 steals, 2 blocks; Greta Faber - 1 point, 2 rebounds, 3 assists; Taylor Dirkes - 10 points, 6 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 deflections, 3 steals; Bella Weisser - 8 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal; Carlee Muenzhuber - 7 points, 1 rebound, 2 assists, 2 deflections, 1 steal; Kiley Kranz - 13 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal