Buzzer Beater Lifts Eskomos over Cromwell

Wes Vork-NSO

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Feb 5

Wes Vork-NSO

With both Cromwell and Esko boys basketball teams coming off of overtime wins in the last week–the Cards winning a double overtime affair at McGregor and Esko notching an overtime win against Denfeld–it looked like things were heading in that direction again when the two teams met in Cromwell on Friday night. That opportunity did not come to be when the Eskomos hit a three point shot at the buzzer to pick up the 56-53 win.

From the very beginning, the well played and hard fought game had the look of a contest that would come down to which team had the ball last. The first half did very little to establish a frontrunner, with Esko taking a one point (32-31) lead into the locker room at halftime. First half stats were as close as the score with Esko shooting 41.4% and Cromwell shooting 40.6%.

The Eskomos came out strong and appeared to break the game open when Jake Stainbrook hit a three pointer, giving Esko an 11 point (48-37) lead at the 9:11 mark of the second half. However, the Cards had no thoughts of folding their tent and went on a 9-0 run to get back in the game to cut the score to 48-46 with 5:25 left. From that point on, both teams traded baskets with Esko clinging to a 53-51 lead when Cody Smith turned an Eskomo turnover into two points, tying the game for the ninth time at 53 all.

With a minute left in the game, Esko brought the ball down and worked for the last shot, calling a timeout with 12 seconds left to set up a play. Out of the timeout, the Cardinals played extremely tight defense denying Esko a decent shot. Knowing time was about to expire, Jackson Lindquist tossed up a three pointer over a double team which found its way to the basket, shocking the home crowd and giving Esko the 56-53 win at the buzzer.

Jake Stainbrook led the Eskomos and all scorers with 22 points. Joining Stainbrook in double figures were Adam Eskuri and Jackson Lindquist with 14 and 12 points respectively. Cody Townsend added 5 points, Adam Deveau scored 2 points and Sam Nigon rounded out the scoring with 1 point.

Cromwell also
put three players in double figures, led by Jordan Smith with 16 points, Cody Smith with 15, and Ryan Hutar with 12 points. Hutar also notched 14 rebounds. Rounding out the Cromwell scoring was Mike Hedin with 6 points and Nolan Wester with 4 points.

With the win, the Eskomos up their record to 11-6 and will host Two Harbors on Monday. Cromwell falls to 9-7 on the season and will be back in action on Tuesday when they travel to Remer to take on Northland.

Wes Vork can be reached at wes@northlandsportsonline.com