Grafton boys win 49th annual St. Thomas B-squad Basketball Tournament
Defense was the key in the Grafton B-squad’s victory over the Cavalier Tornadoes in the Championship of the 49th annual St. Thomas Boys’ B-squad Basketball Tournament.
Grafton’s pressure defense yielded several transition buckets and Grafton led start to finish on the way to a 68-28 win.
“We play the whole 90 feet for 32 minutes and that’s been our deal all year,” Grafton coach Brent Baldwin said.
The Spoilers took an early lead on a basket by Jacob Garza and set the tone for the game when Zak Hernandez stole the ball and cruised in for a layup to make the score 4-0 in favor of Grafton, prompting a Cavalier timeout at the 6:57 mark of the first quarter.
Leading 10-8, the Spoilers finished the quarter on a 6-2 run, started with a three-pointer by Hunter Baldwin and a pair of free-throws by Garza to make the score 16-10 in favor of Grafton.
Hernandez scored six consecutive points early in the second quarter, two of them after steals and another after an offensive rebound and put-back that gave Grafton a 22-13 lead midway through the first quarter.
Grafton led 27-19 at halftime but slowly pulled away in the third led by Baldwin and Flores. Baldwin drained two more three-pointers and Flores demoralized the Tornadoes with three steals followed by layups as well as going 4-for-4 from the free-throw line. A steal and layup by Flores with 20 seconds left in the third quarter gave the Spoilers a 45-25 lead.
“We missed some shots in the first half, but in the second half we did a better job at that and we hit the boards better,” Baldwin said. “We’re aggressive and we got into a little foul trouble in the first half, but we wore them down in the second half.”
Junior Sergio Quijano came off the bench to score nine of his 10 points in the fourth quarter and the Spoilers ran away to the 40-point win.
Hernandez led Grafton with 17 points, followed by Flores with 15 and Baldwin with 14.
Jacob Garza added seven points for Grafton, followed by Brody Nelson with five. Sophomore Taylor Morin led Cavalier with 10 points.
Park River-F-L 53, North Border 41
The Park River-Fordville-Lankin (PR-F-L) Aggies B-squad pulled away in the second half for a 53-41 win over the North Border Eagles for third place.
After holding a 22-20 halftime lead, the Aggies outscored the Eagles 20-11 in the third quarter led by Spencer Rehovsky who scored eight points. PR-F-L maintained that advantage in the final stanza on the way to the 53-41win.
Austin Moe led PR-F-L with 17 points, followed by Josh Ruzicka with 15 and Rehovsky with 14. Matthew Dobmeier added nine points for the Aggies, followed by Daniel Onstad with four and Levi Johnson and Cadyn Hunter with two points each.
Midway-Minto B 60, Grafton C 47
Midway-Minto’s B-squad took home the fifth place trophy with a 60-47 win over the Grafton C-squad.
The first half was close all the way. The Mustangs led 18-15 after one quarter and 31-29 at halftime.
Minto increased their lead, outscoring Grafton 16-10 in the third quarter, led by Ethan Wysocki and Derek Goodoien with five points each.
Wysocki stayed hot for the Mustangs in the fourth quarter scoring eight points including a 4-for-4 performance from the free-throw line and ended with a game-high 20 points. Devin Flanders also hit double figures for the Mustangs with 13 points.