Knights Go 16-3 For Big Comeback

Boys high school play-off basketball is upon us.  Both sections 1A and 1AA should be wild, crazy, and highly competitive.  A first round 1A contest between 12-seed Grand Meadow (12-13) and 5-seed Kingsland (15-11) started the ball rolling.  The Knights won the regular season meeting 55-53 (each team down a starter Kingsland Wyatt Pruter, GM Colt Landers).  The post-season match-up was even closer.  It looked like upset city early on.  The Larks barely missed from distance in the first half.  Hitting 8 of ten threes, GM jumped out 14-4 and led 35-23 at the break.  The lead ballooned to 16 (44-28) early in the second.  It looked like N.C.A.A. March Madness; a 12-seed nearly always beats a 5-seed.  GM, younger and the underdog, then maybe went to the stall a bit too soon.  Senior-laden Kingsland said hold on.  John Fenske’s Knights have spurt-ability.  They pounded it inside and pounded the glass.   Matthew Woods’ three-point play got the deficit under 10 (50-41; 6:46).  The play started a big run.  Zach Bubany’s pull-up deep three two possessions later was a huge momentum grabber, trimming the deficit to 51-46 (5:47).  Scoring on their seventh straight possession, a Wyatt Pruter bucket made it 51-50 (4:47).  In the span of two minutes, Kingsland went on a 12-1 run.  Two possessions later, a Bubany driving bucket gave the Knights their first lead (52-51; 3:15).  Jordan Beck then found Jackson Rindels to put the Knights up 54-51 (2:45). In the final two-and-a-half minutes, just two points were scored.  Ethan Gilbert-Jahns hit two free throws to pull GM within one (54-53; 2:05).  After that, Kingsland missed three shots and two front-ends.  GM had three shots to go ahead.  Gilbert-Jahns missed two, the later hindered greatly by Beck’s defense.   With 0:07.5 left, the Knights missed their second front-end.   Austin Funk got the ball down court and got up a wild attempt up.  There was contact.  There was contact all night.  The shot was off-off.  Time expired.  Ending on a 16-3 short run, a 26-9 prolonged run (after trailing 44-28), five-seed Kingsland survived and advanced 54-53.   Guards Pruter (16 pts, 6-12 FGs) and Bubany (12 pts, 3-8 threes, 5 assists) did work.  Beck (12 pts, 17 rebs) was a beast on the boards.  Funk (17 pts, 3-4 threes), Landers (11 pts, 6 rebs), and Gilbert-Jahns (10 pts) led GM.  The Larks attempted less threes in the second half (1 of 6) than they made in the first (8 of 10).  They didn’t record a field goal the last 7-plus minutes and had just one field goal the final 11-plus minutes.  They scored on back-to-back possessions to start the second half, then had just three field goals the final 24 possessions.  Kingsland owned the boards (39 to 25), particularly after halftime (24 to 10).  They had 19 offensive rebounds for 14 second-chance-points all told.  GM had four for three.  The Knights thus had 16 more shots (K 21-57 FGs, GM 16-41 FGs).  Kingsland (5-seed, 16-11) moves on to Mayo Civic to face Faribault-B.A. (4-seed, 15-11).