Eskomos Fall In Section Final Heartbreaker

Wes Vork-NSO

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Mar 11

Dwight Cadwell-NSO

The Esko Eskomos fell Thursday night at UMD in the Section 7A finals to the Braham Bombers by a score of 58-55. The Bombers defended their Section 7A championship and will return to the 2010 Minnesota State Basketball Tournament for the second straight year.

The Eskomos came out with a game plan and worked it well, coming up just short of advancing to the state tournament. The Eskomos were trying to avenge an earlier loss this season to the Bombers when they beat Esko by 23 points. Esko head coach Scott Antonutti told NSO following the game, “Our girls were prepared and they followed the game plan to perfection; it is just unfortunate we came up a little short tonight. Braham is a great team and I think we proved tonight that we can compete with anyone in our class. We wish the best of luck to Braham at the state tournament.”

He then added, “I couldn’t be happier with the effort of our girls tonight. It was a battle and their belief that they could win never wavered against the defending section champ that didn’t lose a single starter from last year and who beat us on our own court less than a month ago by over 20 points.”

The low scoring contest in the first half saw Braham leading 18-17 at the break. The second half was a story of small runs with both teams battling back and forth. With the game tied at 51-51, Braham went on a mini-run to build a 58-52 lead. Keely Deadrick hit a three pointer with 19.2 seconds remaining to cut Braham’s lead to three, but Esko would not get any closer despite having a couple of chances at the buzzer.

Keely Deadrick led all scorers with 25 points on the night. She also added to Esko’s single season scoring record, finishing the season with 570 points. Savanna Trapp finished with a double-double by adding 12 points and 11 rebounds. Amanda Bergstedt finished with 11 points, Lydia Pelletier added 5 points, and Alyson Glumac ended with 2 in the loss.

Rebekah Dahlman led the Bombers with 21 points on the night, while her sister Hannah added 14 points in the win. Kelsey Sorenson chipped in with 15 points for Braham, Liz Anderson and Austyn Eng each added 3 points and rounding out the scoring with 2 points was Katie Nickles.

Northland Sports Online would like to congratulate the four seniors Julianne Carley, Katie Tonner, Amanda Bergstedt, and Kate Marquis and wish them future success for all of their years of hard work and dedication to Esko basketball.

Dwight Cadwell can be reached at dwight@northlandsportsonline.com