PR-F-L Aggies ‘all-in’ against Eagles
In the style that would make infamous gambler Amarillo Slim giddy, coach Larry Omdah had his Aggies “All In” Friday night when they took on the North Border Eagles in District 4 Boys basketball action
Park River-Fordville-Lankin played as hard as they had all year. With a mix of good, crisp passing, spot on shooting, and a body on the floor for every loose ball, the Aggies outplayed the Eagles and it earned them their second win of the season, 55-48.
As for the scoring, the Aggies scored by committee. Jordan Johnson dominated the first quarter, scoring 10 points and dishing out two assists as the Aggies matched the hot shooting Eagles with a 16-16 tie after one. The Eagles nailed two three-pointers in the first, one each by Keaton Severtson and Charlie Bjornstad as both teams played at a dizzying pace up and down the floor.
The Eagles would lead by as much as five early in the second quarter as Austin Volk started to heat up.
The Junior forward hit a three early. Then another bucket by Bjornstad put the Eagles on top, 23-18.
The Aggies responded with four points by freshman Spencer Rehovsky to get to within one. Late in the quarter the Aggies’ Jesse Blasky would hit a big three that tied the game at 27-27 with just seconds to play. A mental lapse defensively by the Aggies allowed Volk to slash uncontested to the basket in the last seconds of the half and the Eagles went into the halftime locker room up by two, 29 -27.
Both teams traded baskets in the third, that is, the Aggies and Volk would trade baskets. Volk scored every field goal except for one for the Eagles in the second half. The Aggies meanwhile took turns. First it was Esten Beneda who scored three straight baskets, the last of which gave the Aggies their first lead of the game, 35-33 with 4:39 to play in the quarter.
Volk scored twice before Johnson hit two in a row and the Aggies had the lead back at 39-37 midway through the quarter. The only basket scored by someone other than Volk for the Eagles was a big one. A long three pointer by Severtson in the last minute of the third put North Border up 40-39. However the Aggies led 41- 40 at the quarter’s end after Cadyn Hunter drained a 17-footer from just in front of the free-throw line and Aggies never trailed again.
Coach Omdahl saw a good effort rewarded with a win. “We’ve played hard all year but tonight we made plays for the entire game and it paid off.”
The fourth quarter belonged to the Aggies. This time it was Andrew Hylden who took the scoring into his hands. The junior forward would hit three straight baskets including a big three-pointer at the 5:00 minute mark that put the Aggies up 49 to 44. He would score again later at the 2:40 mark to give the Aggies a seven point lead. Volk, try as he would, scored four more times for North Border but it would be too little, too late as the Aggies stifled many good looks from long range Eagle shooters and in the end it was a big 55 to 48 win.
Jordan Johnson led the Aggies with 16 points, followed by Chad Jelinek and Esten Beneda with 10 points each. Andrew Hylden added seven for PR-F-L, followed by Jesse Blasky with six, Spencer Rehovsky with four, and Cadyn Hunter with two.
Austin Volk led all scorers dropping in 27 points for the Eagles.