Warwick’s Anthony Touche Jr. shoots free throws as head coach Robert Lawrence looks on.
DEVILS LAKE — Benson County and Warwick each fell into a big early hole on Friday.
Both teams nearly completed gutsy comebacks. But each squad had to settle for a close loss in the Ramsey County Boys’ Basketball Tournament consolation semifinals.
Benson County can’t quite complete comeback
Benson County trailed 16-2 to open Friday’s game.
Though the Wildcats never had a lead, they got within two at the half and were in it until the end.
“The grit and the fight,” head coach Dustin Paulson said of what he saw from his team. “They kept their heads up. They put ‘em down and kept moving forward. Kept fighting. That’s what we talked about before the game; when you get hit, knocked down, we’ve got to get up and keep moving.”
Benson County (0-4) ultimately fell 69-64 to Griggs/Midkota (1-4).
While the Wildcats’ big guy, Grant Haagenson, led them on Thursday, they played a scrappier game on Friday — fueled by Aiden Rodriguez, Damien Herman and Grant Engebretson.
Rodriguez led them with 23 points. He hit four triples on the afternoon.
“His quickness,” Paulson said of what impresses him about Rodriguez. “And he wants to win. We’re no three yet, but we’re getting there. And we go as he goes.”
Threes by Rodriguez and Engebretson helped narrow G/M’s lead to 32-30 at halftime.
Engebretson stepped up in a big way. He scored 20 points, hitting three triples. He also rebounded and passed well.
“He had some big shots,” Paulson said. “And he always tells me he wants that heat check. And I feel like every shot he takes is a heat check. Then he knocked down the free throws and got a lot of rebounds for us.”
G/M looked like it might pull away early in the third quarter, increasing its lead to 11. Then Rodriguez made a steal and a layup, and hit a corner three to make it 44-39.
Benson County stayed within seven points in the fourth quarter but couldn’t get over the hump.
Trace Spickler was a pest on G/M’s side in the first three quarters. He had 26 points in that span. Lakin Ronningen came off the bench and kept getting inside, scoring 16 in the second half to finish with 19 overall.
“We got tired,” Paulson said. “And tried to keep them in front of us when we needed to. And that hurt us in there at the end.”
Haagenson, after 23 points for Benson County on Thursday, only scored four on Friday. They were all in the first half.
“Feel like he didn’t have the spark in him today,” Paulson said. “Probably tired from yesterday, coming over, being a big guy and all. And also, we didn’t match up well with him. … They were a little quicker than us, so the matchup wasn’t really there.”
Paulson wants his players to keep focusing on defense as they search for that elusive first win.
“Defense, rotations, boxing out, closing out,” Paulson said. “Keeping guys in front of us. And need to play team defense. It’s the name of the game.”
Benson County moves to the seventh-place game Saturday at 11 a.m.
Warriors nearly stun Carrington
Warwick’s consolation semifinal game followed a similar pattern.
The Warriors trailed 19-4, then came back to take a brief lead in the third quarter. Warwick (0-7) made Carrington (2-5) sweat in the final minute, but took a 65-60 loss.
First-year head coach Robert Lawrence still saw vast improvement from his squad’s 81-30 loss to North Star.
“I actually only wrote one word on our whiteboard in the locker room, and that was ‘defense,’” Lawrence said. “We needed to improve on that in order to stay in a game. And it showed out there. Today, we played a full game, and we were right there. The game could have went either way. At the end, it just didn’t go our way.”
On Thursday, Warwick had struggled on both ends. Offense continued to be a grind early in Friday’s game, with the Warriors stuck at four points into the second quarter.
But Ryland Redfox hit a three, and a switch flipped. Warwick hit five triples in the second quarter. A 10-0 run made it a game.
“I liked the fight,” Lawrence said. “That’s one thing I want, and I’m trying to instill: Never give up. You’re never out of a game. Basketball is a game of runs. It could go our way, it could go the other way. You’ve just got to weather the storm sometimes. And we did, and fought our way back.”
Plus, it wasn’t just leading scorer Anthony Touche Jr. doing all the heavy lifting. Redfox and Brooklyn Abraham each scored five points in the second quarter, while Kingston Fox hit a pair of threes.
Touche Jr. still led Warwick with 26 overall. But Warwick has had trouble giving him support this season, so Lawrence was glad to see some other kids adding to the scoring column.
“We’ve got to give him some help,” Lawrence said. “He draws so much attention. He’s such a good player, and rightfully so, the attention is drawn to him. But we’ve got to get some other guys to contribute too, as well, so we can kind of ease the pressure of him as carrying the load for the team.”
Redfox made two more triples in the third quarter to finish second on the team with 11 points.
The first of those shots tied it at 43-43; the second put Warwick ahead 46-45.
Carrington’s Taylen Mehring flung a three-pointer from half-court at the buzzer of the third quarter. It was one of six triples on the night for Mehring, who put up 30 points.
Down eight, Warwick rapidly tied it at 56-56 with a three off the bench by Brandon Black and a deep three from Touche Jr.
Carrington responded with seven straight, including a Maddox McIlonie triple. Touche Jr. got to the rim a couple more times, but Carrington made it a two-possession game for the final seven seconds.
The Cardinals held on for the narrow victory. Carrington is the lone Class A varsity team in the tournament.
Warwick is still searching for its first win since Lawrence took over as head coach.
“I just told the boys that I liked what I saw tonight,” Lawrence said. “And this is the direction that we want to head. And we’re going to continue fighting, and defense is going to be one of our hugest factors. … I’m stressing defense all season long.”
Warwick moved to face Benson County in Saturday’s seventh-place game.
