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PREP BOYS BASKETBALL: Rematch redemption

In rematch of section championship game, Vikings take down Knights in 74-53 victory

Photo by Jake Przytarski Minneota’s Jacob Hennen puts up a shot during their game against RTR on Tuesday. The Vikings defeated the Knights 74-53.

TYLER - Meeting on the court for the first time since their March 15 Section 3A Championship thriller won by the eventual state champions of Russell-Tyler-Ruthton, a hungry Minneota Vikings squad flipped the script on Tuesday with an impressive 74-53 road victory over the Knights, continuing their undefeated run to begin the season.

Focusing more on the road ahead than the history between the two teams, Minneota coach Dave Busselman was just happy to pick up the conference victory in the ever-challenging road venue in Tyler.

“Conference-wise it’s a big win for us, we took care of some things,” said Busselman. “It’s nice to win in Tyler, that doesn’t happen very often. The big picture is more important than what the picture is right now. You put these two teams together they’re going to compete every game.”

Battling it out in front of a raucous crowd, the two teams traded baskets still vying for the early momentum. Behind back-to-back baskets by Cooper Hansen and Jared Hauswedell, the Knights seized hold of it and carried a 9-4 lead in the opening minutes of the half.

Unfazed by the early onslaught, the Vikings responded with a 15-3 run thanks to a pair of 3-pointers from Thomas Hennen and Nolan Boerboom that gave them a 19-12 and forced a Knights timeout to regroup.

Without one of their best scorers in Carter Hansen, the Knights struggled to knock down shots down the stretch, but kept the game close heading into halftime trailing 31-20 at the break.

Unfortunately for the Knights, the manageable deficit for the Knights got blown wide open in the opening minutes of the second half as the Vikings caught fire from behind the arc with Boerboom and Thomas Hennen each knocking down a pair of threes en route to a 21-2 run that made it 52-22.

Reflecting on what prompted the explosive start to the second half, Busselman pointed to his team settling down and not trying to do too much as they had done in the first half.

“Well I think we had to come out and start playing better basketball,” said Busselman. “The first half we were in a little bit of foul trouble so we were trying to play around that. We had some kids that were trying to do a little bit more than they needed to and we kind of settled down.”

Unwilling to fold in the face of the large deficit, the Knights battled back with strong 3-point shooting led by Brett Kelley and Myles Williams to pull within 18 points at 62-44. Knights coach Ted Kern came away highly impressed by his team’s willingness to fight in the second half after weathering the early storm.

“I thought they competed very well,” said Kern. “Minneota’s a great offensive team, (they) got hot to start off the second half and (we) kind of dug ourselves into a little bit of a hole but kept battling and kept competing. That’s all we had asked coming in. The scoreboard will take care of itself, lets focus on effort and I think they definitely did.”

In the end, the comeback attempt by the Knights fell short as the Vikings came away with the win by a final score of 74-53, improving to 5-0 on the season.

The Vikings will head back on the road to take on another Camden Conference opponent in Canby on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. Looking ahead, Busselman hopes to see larger stretches of offensive production against the Lancers.

“Right now we had three to four minute spurts,” said Busselman. “We want to make them next game into six minute spurts, so we (can) build off of what we’re doing.”

The RTR Knights will be back home on Thursday to take on Mountain Lake Area at 6 p.m. Kern hopes to build off of a promising effort against a rock-solid offensive team in the Vikings.

“We are capable of playing some good solid defense on a heck of an offensive team,” said Kern. “No matter how deep the hole gets we can chip away (and) we can give ourselves a chance.”

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