Photo by Jake Przytarski WWG’s Andrew Quade brings the ball upcourt during their consolation championship game against No. 1 Springfield on Saturday.

ST. PAUL – The final day of state tournament action began bright and early for unseeded Westbrook-Walnut Grove and No. 1 Springfield in a highly-anticipated rematch from earlier in the regular season between the two southwest schools. Like their previous meeting, the Tigers proved too much for the Chargers to handle as Springfield came out on top in a 91-61 final to claim fifth place in Class A.

In anticipation of the challenge presented by the Tigers with multiple highly-gifted scorers to guard, coach Derrick Jenniges sought out a quick start defensively for his team to build momentum.

“First of all, we wanted to try to be patient offensively, try to get the rebounds and see if we couldn’t throw some defense at them early in the game that maybe could get us off to a quick start and give us some momentum,” said Jenniges. “But they’ve got two really good scorers and their role players are good at what they do, and there’s a reason why they were the top seed and were at the top of the state rankings so we’re pretty proud of our effort.”

Though the result wasn’t what he had hoped for, Jenniges is proud of the resiliency shown by his team in battling through adversity all year long in order to reach the final day of competition.

“We just got done playing in the state tournament for the first time in 25 years and we got great support from our communities,” said Jenniges. “Our kids have dealt with a lot of adversity through injuries and illness. Not only have they grown as a basketball team, but they’ve grown as young men as well. As coaches that’s one of our ultimate goals so we couldn’t be prouder of them.”

Second-chance points lift Tigers

Upon entering the game with the top-ranked Tigers, the Chargers knew they would have to control the boards and limit second-chance points in order to prevent Springfield’s talented collection of shooters from getting into a rhythm. Unfortunately, the Tigers established control of the glass early on in the first half and refused to relinquish it to the end.

Though the Chargers struggled to grab rebounds, they came out of the gates hot from the field and pulled ahead early with an 8-6 lead. Unfortunately, that would be the last time WWG would hold a lead in the game as the second-chance points for the Tigers began to reflect on the scoreboard and propelled them to a 22-13 lead via a 16-5 scoring run.

At the end of the half, the Tigers had out-rebounded the Chargers 33-9 and added 16 second-chance points to WWG’s zero. Even still, the Chargers remained within arm’s reach of the Tigers when the first buzzer sounded with Springfield clinging to an 11-point lead at 36-25.

During intermission, Jenniges looked to even things up in the battle for rebounds when play commenced for the second half.

“We talked about a couple of things, one of them was rebounding,” said Jenniges. “I think we got destroyed on the glass today but that was partly because of the defense that we were playing it was hard for a lot of our guys to see the ball when it went up and they were kind of getting a clean run at it. But it was kind of one of those give or take situations where we had to give something and hope that maybe we could get a reward that way.”

Fink takes over

After being held in check for most of the first half with only eight points thanks to a strong effort defensively by the Chargers, Augustana University commit Isaac Fink made his presence felt early in the second half and all but took over the game the rest of the way through.

Beginning with a pair of made free throws, Fink scored seven of the team’s first nine points to push their lead to its largest mark until that point at 45-25. Andrew Quade would respond with one of his four made 3-pointers on the day to cut the deficit back to 17, but the Tigers kept rolling offensively and were soon up by as many as 23 following another basket by Fink.

In total, Fink would end the second half with 27 points to finish with 35 to pace all scorers. Unable to keep up, the Chargers fell behind by 30 down the stretch and couldn’t draw closer.

The loss moves WWG to a final record of 24-9 on the season.

No. 1 Springfield 91,

Westbrook-Walnut Grove 61

WWG 25 36 – 61

Springfield 36 55 – 91

SCORING: WWG (Quade 5-12, 4-8, 15; Freeburg 6-8, 0-0, 14; Mischke 5-14, 4-10, 14; Ross 4-15, 0-0, 11; Christians 0-2, 0-1, 1)

REBOUNDS: WWG (Freeburg 5; Ross, Mischke 4; Christians 1)

ASSISTS: WWG (Quade 7; Ross 5; Freeburg 3; Mischke 2)

STEALS: WWG (Mischke 4; Christians, Ross 2; Quade 1)

BLOCKS: WWG (Freeburg 6; Ross 1)