Bennett Meier (Photo courtesy of New Rockford Transcript)
NEW ROCKFORD — The boys’ District 4 semifinals brought a competitive day of basketball to the New Rockford-Sheyenne High School gym on Monday.
The host and No. 1 seed, No. 8-ranked New Rockford-Sheyenne, took down No. 5-seeded Warwick 66-52 after an early deficit. In the other semifinal, an underdog Nelson County team, seeded No. 7, went neck-and-neck with No. 3-seeded May-Port-C-G but fell just short, 63-60.
So, the Rockets and Patriots advanced to Tuesday’s district championship. The Warriors and Chargers each moved to a region qualifier.
First semifinal game: Warwick 52, New Rockford-Sheyenne 66
The Rockets (18-3) were led by a 27-point performance from Bennett Meier and 22 by Easton Simon. The Warriors (10-10) had little scoring outside of Anthony Touche Jr.’s 24 and Elijah Feather Jr.’s 21.
“They’re experienced, and they’re well-groomed,” Warwick head coach Ryan Brown said. “They’re gonna find ways to keep putting baskets into the hole. They found a way to keep scoring. We went on a dry spell, and that’s what really helped them keep their lead.”
NR-S got out to a 4-0 start. But Warwick shot back with a 7-0 run. Early fouls were called on Meier and Kage Walford, and Feather Jr. made all three free throws after being fouled beyond the arc.
Simon tied it at seven apiece with a three-pointer for the Rockets. The Warriors continued to rebound well, though, and make drives. Feather Jr. tapped in a patient, deceptive layup to put Warwick up 13-9.
“We were moving the ball around well,” Brown said. “Early on, we were using each other, taking our time, being disciplined.”
Simon got the Rockets back within one after making his second triple of the quarter. Aiden Black shot back with one of his own for Warwick. Simon missed a pair of extra three attempts on NR-S’s last possession, keeping the Warriors up 16-12 after the first quarter.
Walford was tasked with guarding Feather Jr., the Warriors’ leading scorer.
“We were over-helping,” NR-S head coach Tyler Cook said. “We weren’t trusting that [Walford] could guard him himself, and we gave some other guys some easy looks.”
The Rockets’ lead was as large as seven with an early three by Feather Jr. in the second quarter. Simon went back to work with his third three-pointer. The Rockets found a groove, finding openings on the outside and gelling into a more sustained attack. Simon added three deuces to his trio of triples, and Meier made seven points in the second quarter.
Feather Jr. and Meier traded go-ahead threes late in the first half. But NR-S had the upper hand going into halftime with a 31-26 lead. It was a 19-7 stretch in the Rockets’ favor to cap off the half.
They carried that into the second half, opening the third quarter on a 7-2 stretch. Meier and Simon continued to carve up Warwick’s defense and find ways to the rim.
“We started moving, started cutting harder,” Cook said. “We got a lot of easy baskets. And just getting rebounds. Defensive rebounds got us out in transition.”
Foul trouble also haunted the Warriors. Feather Jr. committed his fourth at 6:10 in the third quarter. Joramo had two fouls in the final two minutes of the period to foul out.
“I can be okay with aggressive fouls, making a play on the ball,” Brown said. “But when three or four of our fouls are coming anywhere from 80 to 90 feet away from the hoop, we’ve gotta eliminate those type of fouls there.”
Meier put up 13 points in the third quarter alone.
“He’s a tough matchup,” Cook said. “He’s so long and a quick jumper. He’s really good around the basket. And that’s the good thing about our team: We kind of take whatever the other defense gives us.”
The Warriors got 18 points from Anthony Touche Jr. in the second half, giving him 24 overall. He hit two threes in the fourth quarter.
“I’ve kind of been yelling at him early in that second quarter that we need him to kick it on,” Brown said. “It’s a lot of pressure to put on a young guy. But he stepped up in big moments throughout the whole year. He did do a good job in that second half, but everyone’s gotta be able to do their part throughout the whole game.”
The Rockets’ lead was never narrowed below 14. Feather Jr. was limited to three points in the fourth quarter.
“Walford did a real good job on Feather,” Cook said. “I think he still had 20, but just limiting his opportunities was huge for us.”
The Rockets are set for a rematch with the Patriots, one of three teams to beat them this year. May-Port-C-G won 70-60 in Mayville on Feb. 1.
“It’s gonna be a heck of a battle,” Cook said. “It’s gonna be more physical; a lot more size coming at us this game than we faced tonight. It’s just gonna depend on if we can get it done on defense.”
Warwick tries to keep its season alive against No. 2-seeded Griggs/Midkota. The Titans beat the Warriors 65-61 in their last meeting.
“We’ve gotta exploit our advantages,” Brown said. “Griggs County has earned themselves a good season as well… We’ve gotta keep it honest. But for us, tomorrow is just about coming out efficient, staying consistent, utilizing each other and not turning into a one-man or two-man type game. We’ve gotta be able to execute.”
Second semifinal game: Nelson County 60, May-Port-C-G 63
The Chargers (8-13) won just four games in the regular season before Feb. 18.
Coming into Monday, they’d won four in a row. That run included an upset in this tournament over No. 2-seeded Griggs/Midkota. Next up on their list was the No. 3 seed, May-Port-C-G (11-10).
And although they didn’t win, they put up another gritty fight.
“We were battle-tested in the regular season, so we knew we were gonna eventually start playing well,” Nelson County head coach Tyson Ackerman said. “You want to be playing your best basketball at tournament time, and I think we are.”
Nelson County graduated eight seniors last year, yet still has a roster of 17 kids cycling in and out. This is the second year of Lakota and Dakota Prairie co-opping.
“At practice, everything’s really competitive. Drills are competitive,” Ackerman said. “We end up doing a lot of different things. We go two ways all the time at practice. So yeah, I mean, our kids fight every day. And they try to get better every day. It’s a luxury to have that.”
Both teams started the game in a scoring skid. The Chargers played some pesky man-to-man defense, but both teams were missing put-backs and not finishing drives. The Patriots led 2-0 on 2-of-4 free throws.
The game’s first field goal didn’t come until 5:17 in the first quarter, when Axel Anderson swished a go-ahead three from the corner for Nelson County. It led 6-2 after Sy Maresh made an and-one.
It took almost three and a half minutes for the Patriots to make their first field goal. But they briefly squeaked ahead 7-6 on Wyatt Perkins’ and-one.
Nelson County fought back with seven straight to complete the quarter. Gage Flaagen hit a three off the bench to put the Chargers up 13-7 heading into the second frame.
That lead was 18-10 after five points by Anderson, including another triple. But things unraveled quickly for Nelson County. Bricker Johnson connected on a pair of three-pointers, fueling a 10-0 run that put May-Port-C-G ahead 20-18.
“Bricker, he’s one of the best kids in our region,” Ackerman said. “I’ve had the ability to coach him in basketball camps and stuff like that before. It’s no surprise how good he is. Try to keep him off his right hand. He’s a freshman, but he doesn’t play like it. But if we can get him to cross back over to his left and make him change direction and change his pace, that helps us in the game, and that’s our game plan there.”
Johnson was a pest with 10 points in the second quarter. The Patriots outscored the Chargers 17-2 over a stretch to take over control of the game.
“It’s easier said than done,” Ackerman continued. “He makes a three in the corner off an offensive rebound; that’s our fault. We shouldn’t give up an offensive rebound, those type of things. But yeah, he’s everything that he’s advertised as.”
At halftime, the Chargers’ deficit was 29-22.
Slowly but surely, the Chargers came back. Their deficit was as many as 10, 41-31, but a 7-0 run got them within a 43-41 margin. They prevented a lot of the drives May-Port-C-G was making early in the game, and Maresh made a pair of threes.
Johnson missed two free throws with a chance to give the Patriots some breathing room. Landon Sundeen converted both of his own free throws and Jaxson Joramo gave the Chargers a 45-44 lead.
“We’ve made an M.O. of getting down against teams,” Ackerman said. “We’ve been down 20 and fought a team to overtime. This group of kids never gives up. And they never quit defending. And they never quit working hard. And then that gives them chances to be in games and win games.
“In the regular season, we didn’t win those games. But we were in ‘em.”
May-Port-C-G led by two going into the fourth quarter. It got off to a quick start in the final period with an and-one on Zane Anderson’s fourth foul and a three by Johnson.
But the Chargers had some resilience left in them. A three by Zane Anderson helped them get within one, 52-51. Rider Schmidt both tied the game and gave Nelson County a 57-55 lead.
May-Port-C-G ultimately finished the game with more energy. Perkins knotted it back up, and the Patriots soared ahead 61-57 on four free throws.
“We can’t foul like we did,” Ackerman said. “We let one kid [Perkins] shoot 17 free throws. That’s not okay.”
Schmidt converted a three to make things interesting. But the Chargers couldn’t get the ball back in their hands fast enough.
They had to settle for a hard-fought loss. They’ll play Tuesday against No. 4-seeded Larimore, which they beat 52-48 to start this stretch of success on Feb. 18.
“We got the district’s seven seed… The only people that expected us to beat Griggs/Midkota was the guys that were in the locker room,” Ackerman said. “Just keep fighting, and keep showing that we’re getting better every day, and that we’re becoming a full basketball program and a basketball talent. And do your job. Accept your job. Someone’s gotta do the gritty work.”
First loser-out game: Hatton/Northwood 46, Larimore 69
Second loser-out game: Benson County 49, Griggs/Midkota 57
The Wildcats’ (5-16) season ended before the start of Monday’s semifinal games. They were within one, 25-24, at halftime, but couldn’t hang on.
Paxton Neppl led Benson County with 19 points, Holdyn Jacobson had 14 and Aiden Rodriguez had 10.
