June 10, 2021 at 1:12 p.m.
Eagles topple Vikings, Cardinals; fall to Huskies
After a back and forth first 5 minutes of the game which had the Eagles slightly ahead at 13-11, turnovers, missed shots and poor defense by the Eagles led to the Vikings 18-0 run over the next 6 minutes to stake themselves to a 29-13 lead with 6:36 left before halftime. After a timeout, the Eagles then turned up their own defensive pressure and forced a few turnovers by the Vikings and started to slowly climb back into the game and trailed at half, 35-24.
Whatever was said in the locker room during the intermission seemed to work as the boys kept methodically cutting into the L-BF lead and finally tied the game back up 39-39 with 10:07 left in the game. The Eagles would never trail again as they continued playing terrific defense and hitting key free throws down the stretch as the visitors were forced to foul and hope the Eagles would miss. The final score was 70-63.
Patrick Kemper again led the way with a superb night, 31 points and 21 rebounds. Along with Jordan Perkins adding 11 and Gary Gross tossing in 13 the Eagles front line dominated the paint. Key free throws in the final minutes by guards, Taylor Smith, Zak Nornberg and Austin Likens provided a complete team victory.
Eagles Scoring vs. L-BF- Smith-3, Likens-9, Nornberg-3, Kemper-31, G Gross -13, Perkins-11.
Tuesday Feb 5 took the boys east to face the Cromwell Cardinals. Playing their second game in as many nights the Eagles took to the floor and went toe to toe with the more physical Cardinals. The Eagles had a slight height advantage up front and were smaller but a bit quicker in the backcourt. The game was set up for whichever team could impose their will on the other.
The first half had both teams gain small leads of 4-5 points and then then other would come back and retake the lead. The Eagles went into the half with a slight 31-27 lead. Defensively the Eagles stepped up their play to start the second and shutdown the Cardinals on their way to building a 54-44 lead with less than 5 minutes remained. Again Cromwell came back and whittled the Eagle lead to 59-55 with just less than 2 minutes left in the game. Just as in the previous night, the Eagles hit their free throws down the stretch and pulled way with the 68-57 victory to even their record to 8-8 on the season.
Consistency was the key to this game as the Eagles never seemed to hit the lull that has plagued them during many games this year. Offensively Kemper and Smith led the way with 21 & 16 points respectively, but it was on the defensive end where all seemed to find their "attitude" for this game.
Eagles Scoring vs. Cromwell- Smith-16, Nornberg-6, Kemper-21, G Gross-8, Wicks-3, Perkins -14
Friday put the boys in action at home versus the Bigfork Huskies. The Eagles were trying to get their record above .500 for first time since winning the first game of the season. The Huskies have an experienced squad and were able to again defeat the Eagles. Maybe it was the more physical defense played by the Huskies that caused many Eagles missed shots or maybe it was just "one of those games" that happen during a long season where offensively things just don't seem to click. But either way the Eagles could never get on track as the Huskies had a double digit lead most of the night after the games first few minutes. Midway through the first half the Eagles were down by a dozen and closed out the first half trailing 35-24. The second half had the deficit grow to 22 with 7:00 remaining in the game at 55-33, before a late surge had the Eagles close the final gap to 64-51. The Eagles seemed to always be a step slow or a box out away that gave up an offensive rebound all night. Although Bigfork is a highly rated team in the area, the team was disappointed in its play and have four days of practice to shake this game off before their next game on Friday Feb 15 at home versus Nashwauk-Keewatin.
Eagles Scoring vs Bigfork- Smith 9, Likens-2, Kemper-12, G Gross-13, Wicks-2, Perkins-13.
[[In-content Ad]]
Comments:
You must login to comment.