Barnum Boys Advance With Second Half Surge

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Mar 10

Dwight Cadwell-NSO

BARNUM- It took a while for the Bombers to get going on Thursday night, but once they did, they rolled to a 52-35 win at home in the section 5A boys basketball playoffs over the Cromwell Cardinals. With Barnum clinging to a 26-24 lead early in the second half it was Josh Hogan who scored eight straight points to lead the Bombers to the 17 point home win.

The first half saw Barnum jump out to an early 18-10 lead behind some nice play from senior guard Justin Newman. The Cardinals didn’t quit as Nic Cahoon came up big with eight first half points to keep the Cardinals in the game at half. Cromwell had cut the lead to 20-19, but it was Newman scoring the last four points of the half to give Barnum the 25-19 lead at halftime.

Cromwell played most of the game without senior guard Jordan Suhonen who went down with a knee injury early in the first half and was unable to return to the lineup for the Cardinals. Cromwell came out and battled in the second half for the first several minutes as Barnum led by two at 26-24. Josh Hogan then added the spark that led to Bombers on a 22-6 run that gave the Bombers 48-30 lead late in the second half.

Barnum went on to control the rest of the half as they win the second round matchup and move on to the quarterfinals on Saturday night in Mora when they face East Central. The Eagles advanced with a 66-40 win Thursday night over Royalton at home. The Bombers and the Eagles met a little over a week ago in Barnum and the Eagles came away with a six point win in overtime.

The Bombers were led by Josh Hogan, who finished with 21 points on the night, Justin Newman added 12, Jacob Naslund finished with 9, Andrew Youngren chipped in with 4, Danny Warpula scored 3, Brandon Newman added 2, and it was Luke Chalberg closing the Bombers scoring with 1 point.

Cahoon led the Cardinals with 10 points, Pat Dahl and Jared Hutar each finished with 7, Nike Hedin added 5, Jake Ramberg poured in 4 and Jordan Suhonen scored 2 points before leaving the contest with his leg injury.

The Bombers improve to 21-6 on the season and move on to the Quarterfinals in Mora Saturday night with the game time scheduled to begin at 7:30pm. The Cardinals finish the season with an 11-15 overall record, and they will graduate five seniors this year, Jordan Suhonen, Nic Cahoon, Pat Dahl, Tyler Sulkowski, and Mike Hedin. Northland Sports Online would like to wish all the best to the five Cromwell seniors.

Dwight Cadwell can be reached at dwight@northlandsportsonline.com