Ogichida Move Forward In Section 7A Playoffs

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Mar 8, 2012

Dwight Cadwell-NSO

HERMANTOWN- Fond du Lac saw themselves a year ago in the position to make it to the Section 7A Championship Game with under three minutes to play they lost a eight point lead to Chisholm. This season they are using the loss as motivation and it showed Thursday night in Hermantown, where the Ogichida of Fond du Lac started that goal again with a 70-63 win over the Panthers Thursday night.

South Ridge started out quickly Thursday night as they jumped out to a 10-2 lead with pressure defense and some quick outside shooting; but it was short lived as Fond du Lac senior Kello Brown took over the contest as he started his 36 point scoring night with a dominating game inside as well as out. FDL Head Coach Earl Otis told Northland Sports Online “He’s a special player with all the talent in the world and it showed here tonight.”

Fond du Lac, after trailing early out-scored the Panthers 31-13 down the stretch to take a 33-23 lead into the locker room at halftime. South Ridge came out strong in the second half and used pressure defense to force the Ogichida into several turnovers; which resulted in some easy baskets for the Panthers. Drew Janke hit five 3-pointers for the Panthers on the night.

In the end though, it was too much Brown as the Ogichida took control of the game. Brown took a pass from teammate Trevonte Brown off a steal and dribbled through the legs of a Panther defender, going in for a thunderous slam dunk, which brought the near capacity crowd to its feet at Hermantown High School and the Ogichida sealed their win Thursday night over the Panthers.

Brown, who plans on attending Fond du Lac Tribal and Community college next year to play basketball and study law enforcement, has seen a lot of interest from both Division I and Division II schools. Brown finished the night with 36 points, 22 rebounds with 18 of those offensive rebounds, 8 blocked shots, and 9 assists on the night as he nearly finished with a quadruple double.

Trevonte Brown added 18 points for Fond du Lac, and eighth grader Bruce Martineau added 10 points.

The Panthers were led by Drew Janke who finished with 17, Dan Wood added 15 including two 3-pointers in the loss for South Ridge. The Panthers end their season with a 12-11 record overall, and Fond du Lac improves to 10-15 as they move to the Section 7A quarterfinals on Saturday where they will face Cook County at 1:00 pm.

Dwight Cadwell can be reached at dwight@northlandsportsonline.com