Rebels Chase and Scare Braham, But Fall In The End

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Dec 19

Dwight Cadwell-NSO

WILLOW RIVER- Saturday evening saw the second rated team in class AA come to Willow River High School and nearly saw that ranking in jeopardy as the Rebels of Moose Lake-Willow River gave the Braham Bombers all they could handle and more. The Braham Bombers came away with the hard fought 66-62 win in this section matchup.

The Bombers came into Saturdays contest featuring one of the best players in the state in Tyler Vaughn, Head Coach Bob Vaughn’s son and floor leader for the Bombers. Vaughn entered averaging over 27 points per game and he would leave raising that average as he scored 39 points in the Braham victory.

The first half opened up like a boxing match with both teams feeling one another out, fighting for position and taking and giving leads. The first half featured eight lead changes and the game was tied ten times in the first half alone. Braham built up a three point halftime lead at 35-32 and extended their lead to as many as eight early in the second half.

The Rebels mounted a comeback midway through the second half with Adam Johnson and Trevor Nummela leading the comeback. Johnson had a hot hand from the outside and had a few remarkable drives which helped build a Rebels lead of five points 57-52 with three minutes remaining in the second half.

“They are a great team,” Head Coach Neil Dickinson told Northland Sports Online. “We gave them a scare, but we had our chances to make the game ours.” Dickinson added “it’s tough when you have a player with Vaughn’s talent, he’s a great player and he led them to the four point win.”

Vaughn hit several free throws down the stretch to seal the win for Braham. Vaughn added two three-pointers, and he was 7-8 from the free throw line. Teammate Eric Vavra added 12 points for Braham including 3 three-pointers and Ben Thiry score 11 in the win.

The Rebels were led by Trevor Nummela who scored 22 points in the loss. Adam Johnson finished with 14, Ryan Adamczak poured in 8, and Jeff Hansen added 5 points as did Caleb Koecher. Rounding out the scoring for the Rebels was Nick Tokar and Taylor Mattison who finished with 4 points each in the Rebels loss.

Braham moves to 3-0 on the season and the Rebels fall to 5-1 overall. Braham will play at home Tuesday against Grantsburg. The Rebels will play in Two Harbors Tuesday night in a Polar League battle against the Agates.

Dwight Cadwell can be reached at dwight@northlandsportsonline.com