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The Northland Eagles boys basketball team hosted McGregor as the season winds down. The experience of the Mercuries proved too much for the Eagles to handle as they fell 45-63.

"McGregor has a senior dominated team and will more than likely be the number one seed in our sub-section. Turnovers on our part once again led to some easy lay-ups for the Mercs combined with hot shooting from the perimeter resulted in the one-sided score," commented Coach Tim Vagle.

Chris Scheidt went 11 for 23 from the floor for 26 points and 24 rebounds. Matt Johnson added nine points and six boards for the Eagles and Patrick Kemper and Ken Budreau added a pair of field goals a piece.

Later in the week the Eagles faced off against the Hill City Hornets at the friendly confines. Hard work in the first half kept the game manageable but missed opportunities in the second half spelled trouble as the boys toppled 45-83.[[In-content Ad]]

"We did a great job of grinding through the first half. What felt like a 20 point deficit was only eight at the half. We scrapped on defense but missed too many short shots in the first half. The intensity and scrappiness we showed in the first half was missing in the second half, we came out of the locker room feeling pretty fortunate to be only down eight, unfortunately, the margin quickly grew to 20," said Coach Vagle.

Scheidt again led the scoring for the Eagles as he put in 11 points and 10 rebounds. Trey Kelley added another 10 points and Johnson chipped in seven and 11 boards.

In the final week of regular season play, the Eagles hosted Floodwood looking to get back on track prior to the playoffs. Johnson had his personal best game of the season and along with good shooting from Scheidt, the Eagles were able to hold off the Polar Bears 56-54.

"It was great to get back in the win column. Senior Matt Johnson had his best game of the year, he was active all night and finished with 16 points and 16 rebounds. We took better care of the ball and limited turnovers, when we do that we have success. Matt was huge when we ran into foul problems in the first half," commented Coach Vagle.

Scheidt tipped in 22 points and a dozen boards followed by Kelley with seven points and eight rebounds.

For the regular season finale the boys traveled to Blackduck to take on the Drakes.

Despite solid play from their starters, the boys failed to finish in the win column with a 59-70 loss.

"This was a good battle back and forth in the first half got away from us as foul trouble and turnovers once again led to a Blackduck run at the end of the first half, we limited the turnovers in the second half and battled back from being down as many as 27 points. One of the finest big man regular seasons in NHS boys basketball ended for Chris Scheidt with 30 points, making 11/12 field goals, 1/3 from three-point land and 5/5 free-throws with 13 rebounds, that's quite the game! Senior Trey Kelley was also limited by first half foul trouble but still had one of his best assists nights finding the open man six times, most of which were for easy lay-ups," said Coach Vagle.

The boys will have their full compliment of players as they travel to Onamia Monday, March 7 for the sub-section playoffs. Last time the two teams met the Eagles were missing two guards due to injuries, the boys look for a much more competitive match-up at 7:00 p.m.

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