Chisago Lakes corrals North Branch in their first M8C tilt

North Branch and Chisago Lakes have had a boatload of basketball games against each other in the Rum River Conference. They stamped their rivalry into the North Suburban Conference for the better part of a decade. And now, they bring their heated games to the Mississippi 8, where the Wildcats kicked off the first leg of their basketball rivalry with a 74-65 victory on Tuesday, Dec. 17 in the Chisago Lakes gym.

North Branch jumped out to an early 6-0 lead on some ineffective shooting by Chisago Lakes and a couple of nice buckets by Kyle Burnside and Travis VanElsberg. But, by the time the teams entered the teens, Chisago Lakes had caught up on some balanced scoring by Will Gillach, Jakob Lindquist, Jake McKenzie and Mitch Berg. And once the Wildcats caught up, it didn’t take them long to begin leaving North Branch in their rearview mirror. When the Vikes were up 19-18, Chisago Lakes went on an 18-4 run that turned their one point deficit into a 13-point lead. The ‘Cats carried that lead into halftime, up 39-27. In the second half, it looked like the game would stay at that distance and Chisago Lakes would comfortably wrap up their first Mississippi 8 Conference win.

But, no North Branch-Chisago Lakes game can end easily for either squad. Dylan Dahle, who had been knocked out of the game for an extended period of time early because an unintentional forearm busted up his nose, started to hit some jumpers from the elbow, his money spot. Then, the North Branch defense forced a few turnovers with their pressure defense and turned those into lay ups by VanElsberg and Burnside. All of a sudden, Chisago Lakes’ double digit lead had shrunk down to four points with just over two minutes to play at 68-64. Chisago Lakes Head Coach Chris Gargaro called a timeout and got his guys regrouped in time, though. They went back to work in their offense and moved the ball efficiently, keeping it out of the Vikings hands. When North Branch was forced to foul to save time, Chisago Lakes started hitting their clutch free throws and secured the hard-fought victory.

For the Wildcats, they got double-digit scoring from five players. Lindquist led them with 14, Carter Duncan had 13 off the bench, McKenzie had 12 and Gillach and Berg each had 11 points. McKenzie had a stat-stuffing line outside of his 12 points though, grabbing 13 rebounds, dishing out five assists, and he also had three steals and two blocks. For North Branch, they had troubles shooting again, which has been a problem for them this year. They went just six-of-29 from beyond the arc, including two-of-18 combined from four of their starters. VanElsberg led them with 19 points. He also had four rebounds, two assists and two steals. Dahle had 15 points with six rebounds and two steals despite missing the large chunk of time in the first half to tend to his bloody nose. Burnside chipped in 12 points, 10 rebounds and three steals from his center position.