March 16, 2006 at 8:41 a.m.
Chisago Lakes knocks North Branch out of playoffs
Round three goes to Wildcats as defense leads way in 55-41 win over Vikings at NB
Chisago Lakes knocks North Branch out of playoffs
The North Branch gym, site of last week’s Viking two point win over the ‘Cats, had more Wildcat green in the stands than North Branch red and the Chisago team seemed to respond to the support.
Nick Perrin’s three gave the Vikings the lead 30 seconds into the game. A Zach Sill drive made it 3-2 before the first minute was gone. A Justin Novak steal, basket and freethrow gave NB its biggest lead (6-2) at 15:43.
The complexion of the game changed dramatically at that point. A Cory Claeson-led press wreaked havoc on the Viking offense. “Claeson was a real spark plug for us. He came in off the bench and really got us going,” said Chisago Lakes head coach Herb Jangor. “Sometimes we just take the senior for granted. His energy really gave us a lift. He plays his butt off and his presence really helped us last night.”
A Troy Aadland putback, a Taylor Jones steal and pull-up eight footer and a Chris Golv three gave the Wildcats a 9-6 lead at the 13:50 mark.
Two minutes later, Trevor Johnson found Sill open for a two. Sill took a pass from Brian Jennissen and scored again and Andy Olness stole the inbounds pass and converted to make it 15-7 with 10:43 remaining.
A Perrin three was countered by a Sill 10 footer. John Lindstrom made a nice head fake and ducked under the Wildcat defenders to bring NB closer and a Jake Chambers spin move got the Vikings within three (17-14) with 7:10 remaining.
A minute later, the Wildcat pressure took its toll again. Golv hit a 17 footer and, following another steal, Blane Maher’s layup gave the ‘Cats a 21-14 lead. Lindstrom and Jones traded three’s to keep the margin at seven. Another Chambers spin move was matched by an Olness bucket to maintain the seven point bulge.
With 2:00 left in the half, Tyler Bouwen’s layup was the last score of the half. At the break, the scoreboard read Chisago Lakes 28, North Branch 19.
The Vikings crawled to within five (28-23) on the strength of two Chambers freethrows and a Lindstrom hoop in the first 1:30 of the second half. Johnson hit a short one off an inbounds pass and a Chambers two kept the difference at five (30-25) with 13:30 left.
A Sill putback, an Olness fast break layup and two Jones freethrows gave the Wildcats a 36-25 lead, that they enjoyed until Novak hit two freethrows and Bryce Hunter drove the lane for two with 8:10 on the clock.
With the score 36-29 at the 6:05 mark, Sill went up for a shot from the elbow. Two Vikings deflected the ball as it left his hands. Sill kept his eye on the ball, picked the deflection out of the air and drove in for two. At 5:18, Sill deflated the Vikings with another steal and layup to take a 40-30 lead.
From that point, the Vikings had to take defensive chances that often led to easy CL baskets or opportunities from the charity stripe. Any chance of a North Branch comeback was snuffed out when Sill went high to snag a missed Chisago freethrow. He spun to the right and dropped a short jumper for a 44-31 advantage with less than three minutes to go.
North Branch refused to give up, but it was never able to narrow the margin. When Kyle Hogie’s layup dropped through the net with 20 seconds on the clock, the Wildcats had won the opportunity to play at least one more game.
The Wildcats won the battle of the statistics as well. CL Was 23 for 50 from the field (46 percent) while the Vikings were 13 for 40 (32 percent). The Wildcats outrebounded NB 38 to 29 and had 14 turnovers, compared to 18 for the’ Cats.
Scoring Summary
Chisago Lakes 28 27 55
North Branch 19 22 41
Chisago Lakes
Tyler Bouwens ..................... 3
Andy Olness ..................... 12
Blane Maher ..................... 2
Chris Golv ..................... 6
Taylor Jones ..................... 7
Zach Sill ..................... 16
Trevor Johnson ..................... 4
Troy Aadland ..................... 2
Kyle Hogie ..................... 2
Scott Leigh ..................... 1
Total 55
North Branch
Justin Novak ........................ 10
Nick Perrin ........................ 6
John Lindstrom ........................ 7
Jake Chambers ........................ 14
Bryce Hunter ........................ 2
Jeff Olson ........................ 2
Total 41
“This was a great team effort. We’ve had some games this year where we’ve made comebacks. But, we needed to do that for the whole game. We had to take it to ‘em for two halves,” said Jangor.
“We knew we had to have a good defensive effort. And we did. We did a much better job defensively than we did last week. We slammed the door on all of their runs. Now we’ll see if we can carry that over for the next game.
“When your leading scorer only gets four points, you know you’ve got to run the system, play hard and not get down on yourself to have a chance. Last night we did that. Sill and Olness really stepped it up. Zach (Sill) was a horse on the boards,” coach Jangor added.
“This game was a microcosm of the season. Chisago Lakes came out and played aggressively and we backed off. When a team is aggressive like that you have to execute and we did not execute,” commented North Branch head coach Bill Baumann. “They didn't do anything we didn't expect. They just did it more aggressively.
“If you take away their two three pointers, I don't think they made a shot outside the lane. But you don’t have to if you’re shooting layups and putbacks. We didn’t take care of the ball and they probably got 15-20 points off their defense.
“This was a good experience for our young kids, if they learn from it. They now know the intensity it takes in a playoff game. If we learn from this, it can make us stronger next year,” Baumann concluded.
The young Vikings lose only one senior and they’ll be better next year.
The Wildcats were scheduled to play Fridley Tuesday, March 14 in the Section 6AAA semifinals at Park Center High School.
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