JAMESTOWN, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – A wild finish awaited the District 5 Boys Basketball Tournament as the Ellendale Cardinals came from behind to defeat the Oakes Tornadoes in Overtime 66-64.
Here’s how the championship game and two region qualifiers unfolded:
Championship Game: Ellendale 66, Oakes 64 (OT)
Starting from the beginning, Ellendale jumped out to a quick 10-2 lead, but after the opening barrage, Oakes took control of the game and led through the 2nd and 3rd quarters and most of the 4th quarter.
Ellendale spoiled the party late as Hunter Thrope hit his 4th three-pointer of the game to give Ellendale the lead with under a minute to play. Both teams in the final 10 seconds had chances to win the game in regulation but both teams failed and turned the ball over. Ellendale committed two turnovers in that span while Oakes had one and missed a shot at the buzzer that would have won the district.
Into overtime the two teams exchanged leads early on. Ellendale grabbed an advantage heading to the last minute of the game. Oakes had two looks at winning the game on a couple of three’s from Garret Meehl that came up empty.
A big reason why Ellendale snatched the District 5 Championship was Scott Wagner. The sophomore had 33 points on 30 shot attempts and grabbed 15 rebounds. Thrope had 24 points and hit two humongous threes at the end of regulation and in overtime.
Oakes was led by Meehl with 19 points despite being plagued with foul trouble. Steele Hansen added 16 points while Dalton Schmit had 13 with three treys.
Region Qualifier: Edgeley/Kulm/Montpelier 68, Carrington 46
After falling behind 7-0, EKM constructed a 15-0 run to leap ahead of Carrington in the first quarter and ride a nice shooting performance to a running-clock victory.
EKM’s loss Saturday night against Oakes was not their best shooting performance but the Rebels made up for it last night as they shot 48 percent from the floor and outscored Carrington 64-26 on the heels of falling behind 7-0. Carrington used a 13-2 run with the reserves on the floor during running clock to pull the deficit back to the 20 point range in the loss.
Alex Huber and Cale Mathern were their typical selves scoring 34 combined points in the win. Mathern hit a couple three’s while Huber went 7-11 from the floor. EKM got solid production off the bench from Jorgen Paulson with 13 points and a couple of crowd-rising dunks.
Carrington’s leading scorer was Seth Nelson with 20 points in his final game at Carrington.
Region Qualifier: LaMoure-Litchville/Marion 42, Barnes County North 37
In the lowest scoring game of the night, LLM came out on top after trailing for a majority of the ballgame. Both teams shot in the 30 percent range but despite a low offensive output the game did not disappoint.
A tale of two halves told the complete story in the day’s first region qualifier. The first half was cleaner for BCN. The Bison shot 44 percent compared to LLM’s 26 percent, thanks to so many offensive rebounds. Even while shooting almost 20 percentage points better, BCN’s lead was at three.
The story flip-flopped in the 2nd half when LLM shot a sturdy 55 percent and BCN’s shooting fell off to 26 percent. LaMoure’s Rory Gentzkow caught fire and scored 13 2nd half points to finish with a team high 15 for the game.
BCN’s leading scorer was Tristin Roaldson with 13 points and 10 rebounds, but his 5-11 clip wasn’t good enough as the Bison’s season ends in Jamestown.
Region 3
With District 5 and District 6 set, the Region 3 tournament is now laid out. Beginning Monday from Jamestown Civic Center, here’s a look at the action on the first day:
5-1 Ellendale VS 6-4 Napoleon/Gackle-Streeter @ 3:00
6-2 Kidder County VS 5-3 Edgeley/Kulm/Montpelier @ 4:30
6-1 Strasburg/Zeeland VS 5-4 LaMoure-Litchville/Marion @ 6:00
5-2 Oakes VS 6-3 Linton/HMB @ 7:30
District 5 Awards
Following the District 5 Championship game, the All-District team, Senior Athlete of the Year and Coach of the Year were released:
All-District 5 Team:
Jory Boote-MID
Tristin Roaldon-BCN
Rory Gentzkow-LLM
Garret Meehl-OAK
Steele Hansen-OAK
Seth Nelson-CAR
Scott Wagner-ELL
Hunter Thorpe-ELL
Alex Huber-EKM
Cale Mathern-EKM
D5 Sr. Athlete of the Year: Seth Nelson-CAR
D5 Coach of the Year: Kevin Strobel-EKM