Barnum Comeback leads to Win

Dwight Cadwell – NSO

Photos By: Dan Lingle

The Virginia Blue Devils came out int he first half being the underdog to the Barnum Bombers and with nothing to lose the Blue Devils played loose and took play to the section 7AA top seeded Barnum Bombers and the Bombers would see themselves in a position they were not used to, that being down at halftime by a 29-27 margin.

With Barnum trailing by two points it was head coach Richard Newman who told his kids “we need to stop playing like we are trying not to lose but instead we need to play like we want to win.” and the kids did just that as defensive spark plug Chris Carlson created several second half steals and Brandon Newman hit a couple long range bombs.

The key though was Hunter Fetters putting in four baskets in the low post early in the half which caused the Virginia defense to sag down low even more and allowed the Bombers to connect from the outside as Newman, Carlson, and Mitchell Weller all hit huge three pointers in the second half.

“The kids responded in the second half and Yipper came up big for us” Newman told Northland Sports Online. “It was a great win and we look forward to meeting Esko again in the section finals.”

Barnum who struggled shooting from the outside in the first half had to rely on free throws in the first half to keep the game close as Barnum went 15 – 16 from the free throw line int he first half alone. Newman who had 16 points in the first half added 13 in the second to finish with a game high 29 to lead all scorers.

Hunter Fetters followed Newman with 15 points, Nathan Jelinick added 6, Mitchell Weller and Chris Carlson each scored 5 points, Andrew Naslund ended with 2 and it was Tanner Fugelsted who closed the scoring with 1 point as Barnum improved to 28-1 on the season.

Ryan Cunningham led the Blue Devils with 12 points Tuesday night all coming on three pointers for Virginia. Max Carlson and Darby Maloney each ended with 7 points, as the loss ends the season for Virginia with a record of 21-8 overall.

Virginia    29-12—41

Barnum    27-36—63

Virginia

Tyler Emery 3

Darby Maloney 7

Ryan Cunningham 12

Max Carlson 7

Rickey Sipila 5

Tom Prittinen 1

Ethan Youso 4

Bryce Kennedy 2

3-point goals — Maloney, Emery, Cunningham 4, Carlson

Barnum

Tanner Fuglestad 1

Andrew Naslund 2

Brandon Newman 29

Chris Carlson 5

Nathan Jelinek 6

Mitchell Weller 5

Hunter Fetters 15

3-point goals — Newman 4, Carlson, Weller.

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Dwight Cadwell can be reached at dwight@norhtlandsportsonline.com

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