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