Boys Basketball (3/24)

#3 Warriors Fulfill Destiny, Romp to 1AA Title

There is no argument as to who the best boys team is in Section 1AA this year.  State third-ranked and 1-seed Caledonia (27-2), by virtue of its commanding win over Lake City in the 1AA title game, added the Tigers to the list of vanquished section foes.  And all have been vanquished emphatically.   Amidst Caledonia’ 14-0 record versus other 1AA teams, the closest game was 17 points, to St. Charles in early January.  Included were big wins over the other top two seeds in the section, a crushing in-season victory over 2-seed Cannon Falls, and then a 21-point over 3-seed Lake City (19-9), as the Warriors claimed the section title.   The Tigers fell behind early 12-1 and trailed by as least six the rest of the first half.  Lake City’s first field goal came at the 9:48 mark.  Caledonia was happy to play half-court defense.  And the Tigers struggled to score against it, turning the ball over 20 times.  Eleven miscues came in the first half.  The Warriors led 28-20 at intermission, as the Tigers played better to end the half, staying within 10 points at the break.  Brad King’s group then opened things up quickly in the second half, building a 43-26 lead.   Even when Lake City scored five straight points to get the lead back down to 11 at 43-32, the Warriors promptly scored five points, and did so on one possession.  Garrett Konz could not convert the and-one free throw, but Ethan Stendel and Ben Stemper kept the offensive rebound alive.  It eventually found Mason King and he drilled a three.  It was the epitome of hustle leading to extra points; a formula for teams that win.  Caledonia was happy to play half-court offense too in the contest.  As has been the case all season, defenses had to pick their poison of a team with scorers across the board.  Four Warriors made double figures.  The senior sharpshooter King (18 pts, 3-8 threes) led the way.  Konz (13 pts, 10 rebs, 3 blks) threw down an alley-oop dunk from King.  Reid Klug (13 pts, 8 rebs) neared a double-double.  All three had multiple field goals in each half.  Freshman Grant King added 10 points, nine after halftime.  Ethan Stendel chipped in 5 (pts) and 6 (rebs).  Lake City had zero players make double figures.  Josh Wohlers (9 pts, 7 rebs) and Gavyn Lorenson (8 pts, 6 rebs, 4 asts) led the Tiger cause.  Caledonia shot 26 of 61 (43%) to Lake City’s 15 of 45 (33%) and the Warriors had just eight turnovers.  The 63-42 win was Caledonia’s 17th in a row.  All but one have been by at least 12 points.  All four section tourney foes were held below 50 points and the average margin of victory was 32.5 points per game.  The hyped senior class of M-King, Konz, Klug, Stendel, Stemper, Tyler Hoscheit, Noah Treptow, and (injured) Will Hahn fulfilled one big goal with the title, the school’s first since the crazy triple overtime win over PEM in 2021-2022.  The win also was a big, odd accomplishment, for Caledonia basketball in general.  Entering the year, the girls had seven state appearances, five since 2007.  The boys had 10 state appearances, seven since 2014.  But this is the first year each made state simultaneously.  Caledonia (28-2) got the 4-seed at the state tourney, will play 5-seed Minnehaha Academy (19-9).  The girls also played Minnehaha to start their state tourney.

Trojans Claw Back but Fall in 1A Title Game

It seemed Rushford-Peterson (3-seed, 24-4) would perennially be stuck trailing by at least six points versus Goodhue (1-seed, 21-8) in the Section 1A title game.  The Wildcats built their advantage much on the back of star guard Luke Roschen in the first half.  After a tight first nine minutes or so, the junior hit a trio of mid-first-half threes to put the defending section champ Wildcats in control, up 25-16.  From that point, Goodhue led by six to 13 points for a long period of the game.  Roschen had a huge first half, scoring 25 points to propel Goodhue to a 40-30 halftime lead.  R-P’s starting point guard Cayden Lea missed a good chunk of the first half getting a head wound attended to.  The Trojans had to battle with their depth.  Chris Drinkall’s group got 14 points from its bench in the stanza.  In the second half, the Wildcat lead was at least eight until the final two minutes.  R-P battled to the end, battling foul trouble to multiple players.  A Jaxson Meldahl three with 1:09 left made it a 78-73 ball game.  Goodhue then responded with a score.  Meldahl, a big contributor off the bench in R-P’s semifinal win over Southland also, then authored a three-point play to make it 80-76 with 37.5 ticks left!  After Goodhue converted one of two free throws, Meldahl scored his ninth point in less than a minute, hitting another three to make it 81-79 with 0:24 ticks left! The Trojans were just looking for a chance to literally steal the game.  But Roschen then was fouled and hit both free throws with 20.8 seconds left, making it an 83-79 game.  R-P did not score further and Goodhue won its second straight 1A title by 84-79 final.   Roschen, a 6’2” junior, finished with 40 (pts), 6 (rebs), 5 (asts), and 4 (stls).  He hit 5 of 10 threes.  Freshman Alex Loos added 20 (pts) and 6 (rebs).  Owen Roschen chipped in 12 (pts) and 6 (asts), scoring 10 in the second half.  The Wildcats had five guys score.  R-P had nine do so.  Will LaFleur led the way with 22 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists.  He had 11 points in each half.  Meldahl scored 17 points (3-4 threes) off the Trojan bench.  Lea, after not scoring in the first half, finished with 12 points.  Carson Johnson added 7 (pts), 7 (rebs), and 5 (asts).  All told, R-P had 26 bench points, Goodhue six.  The Wildcats were plus-three at the free throw line, 19 of 26 (73%) to R-P’s 16 of 21 (76%).  They were also much better from two-point range, making 22 of 35 (63%) to R-P’s 15 of 31 (48%).  R-P was plus-12 from deep, hitting 11 of 32 threes (34%) to Goodhue’s 7 of 21 (33%).  Nine of those makes came in the second half, when R-P out-scored the Wildcats 49-44.  But Goodhue shot better overall, 29 of 56 (53%) to R-P’s 26 of 63 (41%).  The Trojans worked hard, harvesting 19 offensive rebounds to Goodhue’s 8, but only won second-chance-points 15 to 10.  The young Trojans’ season comes to an end at 24-5.  It was their first loss to a Class A team.  Caden Johnson is their lone senior.   A promising next year will be somewhat dampened by the rumor and likelihood R-P could move to Class AA.

All SEC Boys Basketball

Southland (18-0, 28-1) was the dominate SEC team on the boys’ side, winning the West division over Kingsland (10-8, 16-11), LeRoy-Ostrander (10-8, 13-14), Grand Meadow (4-14, 5-21), and Lyle/Pacelli (1-17, 4-24).  Houston (14-4, 19-9) won the SEC-East over Schaeffer Academy (10-8, 15-12), Spring Grove (9-9, 11-14), Lanesboro (8-10, 11-15), and Mabel-Canton (10-18).  The Rebels had a league-high four All-SEC picks, two each 1st team and 2nd team.  Of the Journal-covered athletes, four 1,000-plus point scorers denote the first team.  Houston’s Morgan Rohweder (6’3” Sr. G) earned his second All-SEC 1st team selection.  Rohweder led the Hurricanes in scoring at 20.9 points per game, rebounding at 9.5 boards per contest, and steals at 2.6 per.  He chipped in 2.5 APG.  Rohweder scored in double figures in every game but two (both against Southland), topping 20 points on 14 occasions, 30 on four occasions including a season-high 42 versus L/P.  He hit 87 threes at a 37% clip, making three or more in a game 17 times.  For his career, he finishes with 1,574 points, which ranks second in ‘Cane boys’ history behind Andy Sires’ 1,673.  Rohweder also tallied a Houston record of 304 career three-point makes at a 37% clip plus he finished with 595 career rebounds.   Gracing the All-SEC 2nd team is Houston’s Carter Geiwitz (6’5” Sr. G/F).   The lengthy senior averaged 17.7 points, 7.8 rebounds, and 3.5 assists per game.  Each was second best on the team.  Geiwitz was much improved offensively from his junior year when he averaged 11.3 points per game.  He scored in double figures in every game but three, topping 20 on 10 occasions.  For his career, he finished with 1,134 points, 632 rebounds, and 83 charges taken.  Geiwitz joined classmate Rohweder and sister Emma (1,660) in finishing with over 1,000 career points.   Zach Olson (5’6” Sr. G > 6.7 PPG, team-best 4.0 APG, 2.1 SPG) made All-SEC HM for the Hurricanes.  Kingsland’s Max Erdman (6’5” Sr. F/C) earned his first All-SEC 1st team selection, as he moved up from being selected 2nd team last year.  Erdman led the Knights in scoring at 19.9 per game and rebounding at 10.3 per game, as he thus impressively averaged a double-double.  The long senior had 15 double-doubles on the year and scored in double figures every game.  He scored 20 or more in a game 15 times.  Erdman finishes his career with 1,084 points.  Teammate Parker Johnson (6’1” Sr. F) makes All-SEC 2nd team.  He averaged a team second-best 15.1 points per game and 5.8 rebounds per game.  He scored in double figures in 22 of 27 games.  Johnson improved greatly from his junior year when he averaged under 5 PPG and 5 RPG.   Gavin Hubka (6’5” Sr. F > 10.0 PPG, 5.7 RPG) made All-SEC HM for the Knights.  LeRoy-Ostrander’s Camden Hungerholt (6’1” Sr. G) moves from 2nd team to 1st team.  Hungerholt averaged a team and SEC-best 25.3 points per game while chipping in 4.9 rebounds, 2.9 assists, and 2.2 steals per game.   This year was his second straight season of scoring 600-plus points in a campaign.  He averaged 24.5 PPG last year.  Cam scored in double figures in every game, topping 20-plus on 18 occasions, topping 30-plus seven times including dropping 61 points on Lyle/Pacelli.  He made a whopping 170 free throws on the year plus 55 three-pointers.  Hungerholt finished with 1,957 career points, which set the standard for the L-O’s boys’program.  He topped his older brother Trey (1,772).  Hungerholt also finishes his career with over 400 made free throws and over 170 made threes.   Brother Reid Hungerholt (6’1” So. G) is All-SEC 2nd team.   He averaged a team second-best 18.4 points per game with 5.4 boards and 1.9 steals per game.  He hit an impressive 111 of 146 free throws (76%).  Designated rebounder Ryder Stern (5’11” Sr. G > 6.1 PPG, team-best 9.1 RPG) made All-SEC HM for the Cardinals.  Spring Grove’s Ben Udstuen (6’5” SR. F) is 1st Team All-SEC for a second season, tied with the league’s second-best blocked shot average of 1.8 per game, the fourth-best blocked-shot season in the Lion record book. He led the Lions in five categories, including 18.9 points and 6.7 rebounds per conference game with 46% 3-point shooting, 63% two-point accuracy and 83% success at the free throw line. He had the Lions’ second-best steals average of 1.4. Udstuen scored 20 or more points in nine of the 18 SEC games with a career-high 33 points versus LeRoy-Ostrander. Receiving All-SEC HM for the Lions is Bryce Berns (5’10” Sr. G > 8.8 PPG, 3.2 RPG, 71% FTs, team-best 2.6 APG, team-best 1.9 SPG).  Lanesboro’s only pure All-SEC pick is 2nd team selection Nick Taylor (6’5” So. F/G).   He averaged a team-best 14.5 points and 8.5 rebounds per game while chipping in 3.4 combined steals and blocks.  He scored in double figures 22 times.  Over his first nine games, he averaged 9.9 PPG.  Over his last 17, Taylor averaged 16.9 PPG.  Mason Gilbertson (5’10” Jr. G > 5.2 PPG, 3.5 RPG, team-best 3.2 APG, 1.8 SPG) made All-SEC HM for the Burros.  Mabel-Canton’s only pure All-SEC pick is 2nd team selection Isaac Underbakke (6’1” Jr. G).   He averaged 13.4 points, 7.6 rebounds, 5.1 assists and 2.6 steals per game, leading the Cougars in all four categories.  He scored in double figures 21 times while passing out five or more assists in a game 16 times.  He had two point-assist double-doubles, four point-rebound double-doubles, and one rebound-assist double-double.  Underbakke led the SEC in assists (league games only).  Making All-SEC HM for the Cougars is Tyler Larson (6’0” Sr. G > 10.5 PPG, 5.4 RPG, team-best 50 threes made).  Grand Meadow’s only All-SEC honoree is Carter Glynn (6’2” Jr. G > team best, roughly 14.9 PPG, 7.5 rebounds per game) who made All-SEC HM.  Southland’s league-high four All-SEC picks are 1st team selections Noah Goergen (6’1” Sr. G), the SEC Player of the Year, and Tate Goergen (6’2” So. G), plus 2nd team pics Cole Miller (6’3” Sr. F) and Maverick Hanna (6’1” Sr. G).  Also making All-SEC 1st team are Schaeffer Academy’s Ethan VanSchepen (6’5” Sr. G/F) and Lyle/Pacelli’s Landon Meyer (6’1” Sr. G).   Making 2nd team for SA is Luke Friese (5’11” Jr. G).