Barnum Boys Advance to Semi-Finals

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Mar 12

Dwight Cadwell-NSO

MORA- One day after a heartbreaking loss by the Barnum Bomber girls basketball team, it seemed like the Barnum boys were on a mission as on Saturday night. The Barnum boys avenged a loss two weeks ago to East Central as they came away with 52-41 win at Mora High School. The win has the Bombers advancing to the section semi-finals on Tuesday night against McGregor.

The Eagles came out Saturday night and scored the first four points of the game to take the early lead, but it was going to be the Bombers night. Barnum would use great pressure defense along with timely shooting and some costly East Central turnovers to create an 11 point win for Barnum.

After falling behind early in the first half, Barnum plugged away with patience on offense. They moved the ball around the Eagles zone defense and when lanes to the basket were open, a drive resulted in either a foul or a pass off where someone would hit the open shot. Jacob Naslund created several scoring chances in the first half as he attacked the basket and he finished with nine first half points.

Luke Chalberg and Andrew Youngren hit key shots down low as the Bombers built a 13 point lead late in the first half. The Eagles fought back, cutting the lead to 10 at halftime. “Our kids played defense today” Head Coach Richard Newman told Northland Sports Online. “They are bigger than us so we needed to play our best and the kids did just that.”

The second half saw Barnum move out in front again by as many as 16 points, but East Central didn’t quit as they continued to fight back and keep the game close. The Bombers capitalized on great rebounding all night from Chalberg and Youngren. “Andy and Luke did a great job down low for us; they controlled the boards, both on offense and defense.” Newman stated. “We missed some free throws that would have made it not so tight at the end, but again we did a great job, it was an entire team effort.”

The Bombers were led by Naslund, who finished with 14 points on the night. Justin Newman added 11, Andrew Youngren chipped in with 9, Josh Hogan scored 8, Chalberg added 6, and it was Daniel Warpula who ended the scoring for Barnum with 5 points on the night. Tom Battaglia led the Eagles in scoring with 14 points in the loss.

The Bombers improve to 22-6 on the season and will be back in action again on Tuesday night when the face McGregor at 7:00 pm at Mora High School. These two teams met twice during the regular season and split the two Polar League Meetings. McGregor won at home 44-37 in January and the Bombers defeating the Mercuries 60-57 at home in mid-February.

Dwight Cadwell can be reached at dwight@northlandsportsonline.com