State-Bound Bounce: Browerville Downs Barnum

Sometimes things are just meant to be.

Seth Kellen knocked down a straightaway 3-pointer with a shooter’s touch late to launch the Browerville Tigers to a 75-74 victory over Barnum Friday night and into the state tournament.

After seeing a 17-point second half lead turn into a six-point deficit with less than a minute to play, the Tigers roared back.

Mitch Heid scored six points (a 3 and three free throws), while the Bombers made just 2-of-6 from the line to set up Kellen’s heroics at Crosby-Ironton High School.

The game-winner skipped off the front of the rim, bounced twice on the heel and caromed off the glass before rolling in with less than two seconds left.

The Bombers’ last-chance inbounds pass was deflected, allowing Browerville, not Barnum, to move on.

Browerville, now 27-2, will play Mt. Lake/Butterfield-Odin (24-5) Thursday afternoon at 1:00.

Barnum ends the season 24-6, one game shy of its first state appearance since 2007.

As has been the custom this season, Browerville used a heavy dose of center Seth Christensen to jump out to an early lead. By halftime, Browerville led 32-20.

The Tigers extended their advantage to 49-32, before Barnum woke up.

The Bombers stormed back with a blitzkrieg of 3s, tying the score at 63 on the way to a 72-66 lead.

But it was the outside touch of Browerville that mattered most.

Christensen notched a game-high 26 points. Heid contributed 21 and Kyle Petermeier scored 14.

Jacob Naslund led the Bombers with 20, while Rodney Mullen, Jr., finished with 19. 

Browerville Pushes Past Upsala

From start to finish the Browerville Tigers played like the better team. So it was only natural that the Tigers won for the third time this season against Upsala, 62-51.

This time the stakes were higher.

A year after the Cardinals (19-9) eliminated Browerville from the Section 5A tournament, the Tigers returned the favor.

Before a packed Long Prairie-Grey Eagle High School gym, the Tigers (26-2) implemented a dynamic inside-out game to advance to the section final Friday night in Crosby, Minn.

Pivot Seth Christensen scored 22 points and Mitch Heid added 16 points, including a handful of clutch free throws down the stretch.

The reigning section champion Cardinals battled back several times from double-digit deficits, but key mistakes prevented them from getting closer than four.

Senior Seth Kellen inspired the Browerville faithful, returning from a right foot injury to contribute seven points off the bench.

Sophomore Christian Pekarek headed the Cardinals attack, tallying 21 points.

As a team, Upsala hit eight 3s, but it wasn’t enough. 

NYM's Novak Wins State Wrestling Title

KSKK/KVKK’s Behlianno’s Athlete of the Week is Shane Novak of the New York Mills wrestling team.
The junior Novak won the Class A individual state title at 113 pounds at the Excel Energy Center in St. Paul. Novak grappled with the pressure this past season of being No. 1 practically cover to cover, following a second place finish at state in 2011.
Unfazed, Novak achieved the state’s highest individual honor.
"The rankings don't really mean a whole lot to me,” Novak said. “[I took] one match at a time, wrestling for my team, wrestling for my town, wrestling for myself — I just kind of put the rankings aside and what people expected of me aside and wrestled how I wanted to wrestle."
Novak defeated three freshmen, including second-ranked Quinten Berres of Kimball Area who entered the bout at 43-2, to reach the finals for the second consecutive season.
A year the wiser, Novak wasn’t going to let another opportunity for a state title slip away.
Against James Goman of Trinity School at River Ridge, the Eagles grappler jumped out to a 2-0 lead on the Excel Energy Center mat with an early takedown.
That’s all Novak would need to secure his first state title.
Goman recorded a point for an escape, but did little else, and another takedown by Novak provided the 4-1 decision.
" When I get the lead, [it's about] keeping the lead,” said Novak, who, in addition to wrestling, plays football and baseball for New York Mills. “Our coach (Eric Niemi) always says when you get the lead, keep it. It doesn't matter if you beat a guy by 15 or one, a win's a win and that was kind of my philosophy."
In 2011, Novak defeated Berres to reach the final only to lose to senior Jacob Braaten of Minnewaska Area by one point, 5-4.
Novak finished 2012 with 45 wins against one loss. The lone setback came early in the season at 120 pounds against Isaac Novacek of Badger-Greenbush.
"My whole plan was to go down to 113, but cutting weight at the beginning of the season is pretty hard,” said Novak, who enjoys hunting and fishing. “So I just wanted to wrestle at that weight for a little bit then drop it down (to 113) and maintain it down there."
The tri-sport athlete doesn’t regret not having lowered his weight sooner. A state title was the goal, which he achieved.
The same could not be said of his team.
Ranked No. 1 in section play, the Eagles bowed out in the semifinal to Border West.
"Our team kind of hit a wall, but you cant be mad about it,” Novak said. “Our team knew seedings didn’t mean anything and we knew we were going to have to wrestle to win. Boram West just came out and they were ready to wrestle. I guess we weren't, at the time.”
Still, the Eagles were able to send Novak and three others to the individual state tournament.
The hard work paid off.
Novak began wrestling at an early age. His older brother, Jordan, took to the mat and helped push Shane to find success.
The younger Novak now has 151 career wins. The school record is 172.
While the school wins list or an undefeated season would be nice, Novak’s goal for next season is to successfully defend his title.

Browerville Holds Court in Battle With Pillager

LONG PRAIRIE, Minn. — It wasn’t easy, but the Browerville Tigers continued their dominance of the 2011-12 schedule.

Kyle Petermeier attacked the Pillager’s thin interior defense, scoring 10 of his 12 points down the stretch and Seth Christensen delivered a critical putback as the seventh-ranked Tigers topped the Huskies 62-55 in a subsection 5A semifinal game Saturday night.

Clinging to a 50-48 lead in the game’s final minutes, Christensen rebounded a Connor Burns missed free throw and kissed it in of the glass for two.

Pillager would never again get closer.

Browerville led throughout the game with the exception of an 18-16 deficit, but could not shed the feisty Huskies. Not until Pillager center Cole Hunstad fouled out.

Once the 6-foot-4 senior exited, Petermeier came to life.

Mitch Held played well in the second half, too, producing 12 of his 14 points after intermission in helping the Tigers move to 25-2.

E.J. Ziegler dominated the paint for the Huskies with 21 points, but he and his teammates couldn’t come up with the big shot to join Long Prairie-Grey Eagle and Royalton as the only teams to defeat Browerville this season.

Despite the loss, the Huskies completed an impressive turnaround following three dismal seasons.  Pillager finished ’11-’12 with 20 wins, 13 more than it had in the previous three years combined (7-67).

Christensen finished with 16 points for Browerville, three off his season average.

Up next: Browerville plays Upsala (19-8), a team it has defeated twice this season, Tuesday night in the sub-section 5A final.

The Cardinals needed double-overtime to knock off Eagle Valley 90-84 Saturday night.

BOX SCORE

BROWERVILLE — 62

Seth Christensen 16, Mitch Held 14, Kyle Petermeier 12, Connor Burns 9, Brad Dreher 8, Max Goligowski 3

PILLAGER — 55

E.J. Ziegler 21, Cole Hunstad 12, Isaac Jacobson 8, Matt Doss 6, Devin Strack 6, Connor Uselman 2

Nevis Overcome by Foul Trouble, Eagle Valley

CLARISSA, Minn. — The whistle blew out the Nevis Tiger’s basketball season.

Fouls forced two Nevis starters out of the game for good in the second half and Eagle Valley capitalized from the free throw line as the Rebels overcame a 12-point deficit and 38 points from Taylor Chase to win 71-59 in overtime Thursday night.

Eagle Valley made 11 of 14 freebees in the extra session and forced four Nevis turnovers in the first ever matchup between the two Section 5A schools.

The Rebels had a chance to win it in regulation, but Luke Mock missed two from the charity stripe with two seconds remaining and the score tied at 56.

Chase drained two from way downtown to bring the Tigers back from down four in the closing seconds of regulation, following a Rebels furious 16-point turnaround.

The victory sends Eagle Valley (15-10) to the subsection semifinal Saturday to face Upsala (18-8).

The loss puts an end to Nevis’ season.

Tigers head coach Scott Kramer said the keys going into the game were to hinder Eagle Valley’s transition offense by taking care of the basketball, limit second chances and get Chase going.

Nevis (12-15) did just that in the first half, committing just three turnovers and receiving 16 points from its junior guard to take a 31-22 lead.

A strong start to the second half upped Nevis’ lead to 39-27, but foul trouble and turnovers opened the door for Eagle Valley.

Pivot Jake Keranen fouled out first, Matt Gustafson followed, forcing Kramer go to his seldom used bench. Nevis’ poise without its starters lapsed under EV’s pressure defense. On both ends Mock keyed a 16-6 run to cut Nevis’ lead to two, 45-43.

Before long, Nevis found itself trailing for the first time since midway through the first half, 54-50.

Chase brought came through to force overtime, but it wasn’t enough.

Led by Tate Benning’s 24, the Rebels moved to 12-2 against sub-.500 opponents — 11-0 against teams other than Osakis.

History Not Worth Repeating, Upsala Ends Sebeka's Run

LONG-PRAIRIE, Minn. — The Upsala Cardinals got the best of the Sebeka Lady Trojans.

Led by junior Aimee Pelzer’s 15 points, including five late free throws, Upsala (27-1) exacted the revenge it was seeking in a 64-57 victory over Sebeka in the Section 5A Sub-Final Tuesday night in Long-Prairie, Minn.

Exactly 52 weeks ago — March 8, 2011 — in the same LPGE gym, No. 2-seeded Sebeka stole one away from the Cardinals, 58-55. It was only the second the Cardinals lost all season; both were to Sebeka. 

After dropping Upsala, the Lady Trojans would then go on to knock off then-reigning Class A champion Barnum in overtime to reach state for the first time in program history.

If the sting of last year’s postseason loss wasn’t enough, Sebeka also ended Upsala’s 2009-‘10 campaign with a sub-section semifinal thrashing, 82-59.

History was not going to be repeated a third time.

Upsala made sure of that.

Misfortune assisted.

Sebeka was without its top scorer, leader and statistically the best point guard to ever wear the purple and gold jersey — Alicia Boe.

Boe’s more than 1,900 career points, 550 assists and 360 steals could move no more than her left knee, which was immobilized after an injury Saturday night in a win against Nevis.

Sebeka fought hard and until the end, getting offensive lifts from Brett and Katianne Brockpahler, who contributed 16 and 12, respectively.

Without its calming influence, though, Sebeka made a few too many mistakes against Upsala’s pressure defense and missed a few too many open looks — the Trojans misfired on every 3-point attempt.

Despite some early mistakes, including five straight possessions with a turnover, Sebeka entered the locker room tied, 25-25.

In the second half, the Trojans started off slowly but then found a rhythm and their largest lead of the game, 37-34.

Then more turnovers and fouls began taking their toll.

Tracy Herzog got hot for Upsala within the seams of the Sebeka 2-3 zone, and Donna Ripplinger hit a big 3.

Soon Sebeka’s miniscule lead turned into a 49-43 deficit.

Katianne Brockpahler brought the Lady Trojans to within a possession of Upsala, but Herzog drained a baseline jumper and the Cardinals burned clock, while hitting a number of clutch free throws down the stretch en route to its 22nd consecutive win.

Upsala now advances to the section finals to play an Isle Huskies team Friday night that it defeated earlier in the season.

The loss ends Sebeka’s nine game winning streak, the team’s longest in three years.

Jessica Lillquist led the Trojans with 17 to give her 2,265 career points, good for No. 1 all-time in program history.