Bennett Meier (Photo courtesy of New Rockford Transcript)
NEW ROCKFORD — The No. 6 Rockets were challenged in their district opener.
New Rockford-Sheyenne (9-1, 3-0, 1-0) came out to a sluggish start in its home gym against Larimore (5-6, 1-5, 0-2). The Rockets trailed by 10 at the end of the first quarter and by as many as 11 in the first half.
But the Polar Bears, who hit seven three-pointers in the first half, only had one in the second half as NR-S survived a scare. The Rockets took their first lead late in the third quarter and won 58-48.
“They shot the heck out of it that first half,” NR-S head coach Tyler Cook said of the Polar Bears. “And we just had to grind away. We were down six at halftime — the second half, we gave up 11 points. So that was a heck of a change on the defensive side of the ball.”
Bennett Meier fueled the NR-S comeback with 10 points in the third quarter. He led the team with 24 overall. Easton Simon was the Rockets’ primary weapon in the first quarter, scoring 11 of the team’s 13 points. He finished second on the team with 18 overall.
“We had to get it done on defense first,” Meier said. “We weren’t getting stops. They were hitting a lot of shots.”
Simon was fouled on NR-S’s first possession, and he made both free throws. But the next eight points belonged to Larimore, burying the Rockets in an 8-2 hole. With 5:08 left in the first quarter, NR-S took a timeout after the Polar Bears had just landed their second triple.
Simon scored two straight baskets to get NR-S within two. He had the first eight Rockets points of the night, but the rest of the team was struggling to finish drives.
NR-S clawed as close as 17-13 in the first quarter, but Larimore landed two threes to finish with five in the period. NR-S trailed 23-13, with Simon scoring 11 of those 13 points.
The Rockets trailed by as many as 11 early in the second quarter. Larimore’s attack lessened, though, as its aggressive three-happy approach caught up to it. The Polar Bears only saw two triples land in the second quarter. Easton Benz led NR-S with seven points in the quarter, including a three of his own.
Shaun Reimche came off the bench and knocked down a trey. It squeezed the deficit down to 34-31. But Larimore’s seventh three of the first half sent the Rockets into the halftime break facing a 37-31 disadvantage.
“We were playing selfish defense,” Cook said. “We weren’t helping out. We were giving up a lot of open threes and missing some scouting report assignments. That’s why we were leaving guys with open shots.”
Larimore airballed a three to open the second half, setting the tone for what would be a steady NR-S comeback. The Polar Bears didn’t score until 5:16 in the quarter.
“We just needed to play harder, get a hand up and just kind of get into them a little bit,” Meier said.
The Rockets’ first five points of the second half came from Reimche and Meier. They still trailed with less than a minute to go in the third quarter. But a three by Meier got them within one, and another triple by Meier put them ahead 45-42. Meier added another basket for good measure before the clock ran out, sending NR-S to the fourth quarter up by five.
“Huge. Senior stepping up in a big moment,” Cook said. “Big district game. He made three threes in a row there to give us a little juice.”
The third trey in that stretch came right at the start of the fourth quarter, as Meier picked up where he left off by landing another one. Meier finished with four threes overall. Simon, who’d been quiet since his 11-point first quarter, made a three-pointer to run the lead up to 53-43.
The Polar Bears ran out of gas. They struggled with turnovers and their shots were wild.
With 3:18 left in the game, Larimore finally scored in the fourth quarter. It was a three-pointer. With 2:16 to go, the score was all of a sudden 53-48, and it wasn’t quite over yet despite Larimore’s deep scoring lull.
But points from Meier and Simon put the game away. The Rockets held onto a 10-point lead and saw their defensive performance rewarded.
They’ll retain that No. 6 ranking for another day.
“We’re really balanced,” Cook said. “We’ve got a lot of guys that can do things. We’re very athletic. We know that ranking doesn’t mean anything, but we’re gonna get everyone’s best shot coming in. So we’re gonna be in for a lot of battles.”
