Minneota's Logan Sussner had quite a battle under the basket against the tall players from Renville Co. West.

Vikings to face Lakeview for North Section crown

Minneota did it's part, beating Renville County West 73-51 in the North Section 3A semifinals — but Dawson-Boyd did a poor job of getting a re-match with the Vikings.

They lost to No. 3 Lakeview, 60-58 to set up a 2:30 p.m. match Saturday at SMSU in Marshall between Minneota and Lakeview. The winner will play in the Section 3A finals.

In the other two games, Russell-Tyler-Ruthton beat Murray Co. Central, 59-40 and Southwest Minnesota Christian of Edgerton beat No. 2 Westbrook-Walnut Grove, 92-76.

RTR will play SWMC at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, just before the Minneota-Lakeview game.

Dawson-Boyd was just one of three teams that defeated Minneota all year. Both teams, ranked one and two in the north section, were looking for a re-match.

But Lakeview had other ideas.

In a game they led early 11-2, saw tied at 56 with 1:22 to go and a game in which Laker Tate Varpness scored his 1,000th point — Lakeview got a late bucket, then a free throw and hung on for the 60-58 upset.

"It was amazing. I was told maybe this could happen. I guess our guys were pulling for Lakeview," said Minneota Coach Dave Busselman.

In fact, Minneota has beaten Lakeview twice this year — so it will be necessary to beat them a third time in order to get a possible re-match with Russell-Tyler-Ruthton. Those two teams split during the year.

But RTR also has to survive Southwest Minnesota Christian.

Minneota's win was a matter of "runs" — and simply "outlasting" your opponent.

"They're a pretty good team," said Viking Isaac Hennen. After Minneota jumped out to a 23-8 lead with a nine to nothing run, RCW came roaring back with a seven to nothing run of their own. In fact, the Jaguars out-scored Minneota 18-10 in the final 9:37 and the Vikings led by just five, 33-28 at the half.

"We know it's not going to be easy from here on out," said Coach Busselman.

Once the Jaguars Justin Schrupp found the range from the outside — nothing was the same. He hit three straight three-pointers during the run to catch up on Minneota.

During that period, point guard Jared Josephson was getting open looks from the corner. He fire long-range time-after-time and couldn't hit. Underneath, Renville Co. West's 6-6 center Nathan Serbus was winning the rebound battle.

Finally, Josephson connected to help right the Viking ship. He would hit two more in the second half for nine points and ended the game hitting three of 10 from three-point range.

"We knew they would hit some outside shots — they're very capable of shooting the ball," said Coach Busselman.

At the half, his 23-3 Vikings were in a struggle.

But what seemed so difficult in the first half, faded into the night in the second half.

Thomas Hennen found his eye, Josephson hit twice, Isaac Hennen even made a three-pointer and the Vikings hot into 50-38 lead when Jacob Hennen fed the ball to cousin Isaac for a score. That came with 12:03 to go in the game.

Minneota kept  an 11-point lead, then when Tristan Sorensen hit a long three-pointer, it was 60-46 and the Vikings never looked back.

Underneath the basket a battle was brewing. Minneota center Logan Sussner took on the much larger Serbus and couldn't seem to penetrate. One time he had three shots at the basket, Serbus blocked two and each time Sussner would get the ball back and try again. He finally was fouled by Serbus and hit a free throw.

But eventually Sussner fouled out. Yet, Serbus got just 10 points.

"Logan didn't have his best game, yet we won by 22 points," said Coach Busselman. "And Logan still battled," the coach added.

"He's (Serbus) a big boy and tough to match up with. We thought they'd get something inside — but we got the win," said Isaac Hennen.

"We didn't have to contain him, just hold him down," said Coach Busselman.

The Jaguars' guard Trent Kjersten also fouled out, Schrupp scored 26 points and Serbus had 12 rebounds.

Late in the game Minneota put Thomas and Isaac Hennen into full scoring mode — and the Vikings sank seven of nine free throws down the stretch (Thomas Hennen hitting four-of-four) to put the game away. Thomas Hennen ended with 22 points; Jacob Hennen with 18; Isaac Hennen with 10 and Josephson with nine.

Late in the game, with about five minutes to go, Busselman put his team in "control mode" to eat time off the clock and force RCW to commit fouls.

"We decided just to work the ball in," said the coach — and it paid off.

RCW scored just seven points the last nine minutes and their season was over with a 15-12 record.

Minneota 73, Renville Co. West 51
MINNEOTA (2’s, 3’s, FT, F, TP) Nolan Boerboom 3 0 0-1 2 6; Isaac Hennen 3 1 1-2 2 10; Jacob Hennen 5 2 2-2 2 18; Thomas Hennen 5 2 6-6 1 22; Jared Josephson 0 3 0-0 0 9; Tristan Sorensen 1 1 0-0 0 5; Alex Saltzer 0 0 0-0 0 0; Mitchell Rost 0 0 0-0 0 0; Joseph Rybinski 0 0 0-0 0 0; Grady Moorse 0 0 0-0 0 0; Logan Sussner 1 0 1-2 5 3. Totals 18 9 10-12 12 73.
RENVILLE CO. WEST  (2’s, 3’s, FT, F, TP) Riley Ashburn 1 1 0-0 1 5; Tony Froland 2 0 2-2 1 6; Jaden Kolker 1 0 2-2 2 4; Trent Kjersten 0 0 0-0 5 0; Justin Schrupp 4 6 0-0 4 26; Nathan Serbus 3 0 4-8 4 10. Totals 11 7 8-12 17 51.
Score by Halves:
RCW              28    23    —    51
Minneota        33    40    —    73

Statistics:
SHOOTING: Minneota (2’s 18 of 35 for 51 percent; 2’s 9 of 29 for 31 percent; overall 27 of 64 for 42 percent); RCW (2’s 11 of 32 for 34 percent; 3’s 7 of 23 for 30 percent; overall 18 of 55 for 33 percent).
FREE THROWS: Minneota 10 of 12 for 83 percent; RCW 8 of 12 for 67 percent.
REBOUNDS: Minneota 33 (Thomas Hennen 13; Sussner 7, Isaac Hennen 6; Jacob Hennen 5, Boerboom, Josephson 1 each). RCW 33 (Serbus 13; Schrupp 7; Kolker 6, Ashburn 3; Bot 2, Froland, Kjersten 1 each).
TURNOVERS: Minneota 6; RCW 14.
STEALS: Minneota 10 (Thomas Hennen 4; Boerboom, Isaac Hennen 2 each; Sorensen, Sussner 1 each); RCW 3 (Ashburn, Schrup, Serbus).
ASSISTS: Minneota12 (Thomas Hennen 3, Boerboom, Isaac Hennen, Jacob Hennen, Josephson 2 each; Sussner 1); RCW  10.
BLOCKS: Minneota 2 (Issac and Jacob Hennen 1 each); RCW 5  (Serbus 5).
 

 

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