Thomas Allmaras (Photo courtesy of New Rockford Transcript)
CANDO — The unranked North Star Bearcats let the No. 7 New Rockford-Sheyenne Rockets know they meant business.
North Star (1-1, 1-1, 0-0) is in a state of rebuilding. It graduated a tremendous class of seven seniors last year, which included Dane Hagler, Parker Simon and Karsen Simon. But led by Dane’s younger brother, junior Hunter Hagler, and a host of young talents, the Bearcats nearly upset one of the highest-ranked teams in Class B Tuesday evening in Cando.
North Star hit 10 three-pointers. Hagler had the most points for either team with 20, while sophomore Alec Peyerl added 17 for the Bearcats. There were 12 lead changes, and NR-S led by just one point at halftime. But the Rockets (2-0, 1-0, 0-0) finally pulled away in the fourth quarter to take the contest 69-63.
“They played very well. They’re a good, young team,” Rockets head coach Tyler Cook said of the Bearcats. “They shot the crap out of the ball… They gave us fits on the perimeter. We knew it would be a battle, and just glad we found a way to fight it out.”
Bennett Meier, Thomas Allmaras and Alex Weisenburger had 16, 15 and 14 points for NR-S, respectively. Point guard Easton Simon, who passed for nearly 3,000 yards as a quarterback this fall, added 10 points. In fact, all four of the aforementioned names were members of the championship football team. Cook was also an assistant coach on that squad.
“It’s huge,” Cook said. “They’re not scared of the moment. If things get tight at the end, they’re not worried about it. They know how to find a way to win.”
There were three lead changes in the first quarter alone. Simon missed a pair of free throws, but made a steal and then pulled a fake move before starting the scoring with a layup. North Star’s Peyerl had the next five points, putting the Bearcats ahead with the first of their 10 threes and then making it 5-2.
With North Star up 8-4, NR-S scored five straight to reclaim the lead. Shaun Reimche got his own rebound and made a layup to tie it up. Easton Benz then made 1-of-2 free throws.
Hagler also made 1-of-2 free throws, tying it up. The Rockets went back ahead on a shot by Porter Granger and a free throw by Meier. North Star junior Levi Borstad responded with a game-tying triple.
NR-S went back up 14-12, but the seesaw swung in North Star’s direction with another game-tying shot by Borstad and a pair of successful go-ahead free throws by Hagler.
Hagler hit his first of three triples to put the Bearcats up 19-16. But right on cue, Reimche hit his own three to tie it back up once again. Hagler got another bucket in right before the buzzer, and he blocked a three-point attempt by Granger. The Bearcats clung to a 21-19 lead heading into the second quarter.
The Bearcats built their lead to 28-23 after the short break. Hagler hit his second three and had a pair of free throws. Reimche missed a potential game-tying three for the Rockets.
But just as quickly as North Star took over, NR-S regained control. The Rockets went on an 8-0 run to take a 31-28 lead. Allmaras had a put-back on an airballed three, and Simon had the go-ahead layup. The Bearcats got sloppy with their passing and turned it over to Allmaras, who made another layup and prompted North Star to take a timeout.
North Star freshman Ian Westlind swished a game-tying three out of the break. Peyerl knotted it up at 33-33, and NR-S only led by the skin of its teeth at halftime, 34-33, after Meier made 1-of-2 free throws.
“Our defensive communication was really bad in the first half,” Cook said. “We weren’t talking. We were getting stuck on screens, giving up wide-open shots. And credit to them; they were knocking them down.”
Weisenburger got the Rockets started in the second half. But the next five points went to the Bearcats, putting them up 38-36. Hagler made his third three — one in each quarter thus far — to tie it up at 36-36, and sophomore Kale Prouty put the Bearcats ahead.
Weisenburger tied it back up, but Westlind just as swiftly shot North Star back ahead with his second three. The teams traded 4-0 stretches, changing the lead twice with North Star maintaining the advantage.
After a Meier steal led to a Simon layup, Meier jolted the Rockets ahead with his first and only triple of the evening. Yet again, North Star had a response. Freshman Rylen Anderson gave the Bearcats another go-ahead three, putting them up by one. Peyerl completed a 5-0 run and made it 50-47 North Star.
NR-S never led for the rest of the third quarter, though Prouty did hit a game-tying three to make it 52-52. For the third straight quarter, North Star had a marginal lead at the end of the period, leading 54-52 after Hagler’s 18th point.
The Rockets were finally able to quiet North Star’s explosive offense in the fourth quarter. It took nearly half the quarter for the Bearcats to get back on the board.
Prouty missed two potential go-ahead free throws for North Star at 54-54. NR-S blew a couple opportunities of its own, as it failed to land a pair of threes and Reimche missed an open layup. Meier snatched another steal, but missed the resulting layup.
NR-S still went ahead 56-54 on shots by Granger and Benz. With 4:26 left in the game, Westlind scored the first North Star points of the quarter to tie it back up. Hagler made an off-balance shot while falling backwards to give North Star the lead.
Allmaras swished a go-ahead three, and Meier made a basket to put the Rockets up by three. Peyerl kept the Bearcats in it, down 61-60.
At last, with less than two minutes to go, one of these teams finally ran away with the game. NR-S went on a 7-0 run, getting buckets from Weisenburger and Meier and Allmaras’s third three to widen the gap to 68-60.
“We were fine,” Cook said. “We just needed to string a couple stops together. We just couldn’t do that in the first half. And down the stretch, we got a couple and got a little lead to give us some breathing room there.:
Westlind made his third three to briefly give North Star some hope of a last-minute comeback. He had a triple in each of the last three quarters. But time ran out as NR-S wrapped up a six-point victory.
The win came ahead of a weekend CNDC tournament for the Rockets. Their first game after the new year is scheduled for Jan. 7 on the road against Napoleon/G-S. They were playing on Tuesday without Kailar Jacobson and Kage Walford, two key contributors to last year’s team. But the expectations are high for this Rockets squad.
“It’s early. We’re banged up, and we’re just trying to get healthy over break here,” Cook said. “And hopefully we can be there at the end.”
It was the first of two home games in the week for North Star, preceding a Thursday matchup with Warwick. The Bearcats will play in the Ramsey County Tournament at the Devils Lake Sports Center from Jan. 2-4.
