Mar 8thFalcons fly soar Bearcats in 8A Opener

Usually a match-up between the #4 and #5 seeds in tournament pairings, is one of the best contested games in the opening round of the play-offs.  That was not he case on Thursday night when the #4 seeded Falcons of Fertile-Beltrami rolled to a 71 to 48 win over the #5 seeded Kittson County Central Bearcats.

The Falcons took the opening tip and never trailed, leading wire to wire for their 15th win of the season.  Fertile/Beltrami shot the ball well from the field – 64.5% in the first half, and 55.4% for the game…while Kittson County Central struggled to get their offensive on track.  The Bearcats shot just 37% from the field…and plays almost 11 minutes of the second half before hitting their first field goal of the second stanza.   Fertile-Beltrami dominated both the offensive and defensive boards, out-rebounding the Bearcats by a 39 to 20 margin. 

The loss ends the Bearcat season at 12-and-13.  Kittson County Central had just one senior of the squad, Trevor Deere.

The win improves the Fertile-Beltrami record to 15-and-10 on the year.  The Falcons will now play the #1 seed in the west, the Northern Freeze (20-5) this Saturday afternoon at the Ralph Engelstad Arena in Thief River Falls.  Coverage of the game on Thief River Falls Radio Sports.

Scoring Summary

Fertile-Beltrami
Eli Clark – 20 points, 10 rebounds
Mitchell Mosher – 19 points, 4 rebounds
Alex Schmalenberg – 17 points, 4 rebounds
Charlie Duckstad – 9 points, 5 rebounds
Cody Benson – 4 points, 1 rebound
Avery McCollum – 2 points

Kittson County Central
Mitchell Jensen – 12 points, 5 rebounds
Blayne Davis – 12 points, 2 rebounds
Trevor Deere – 8 points, 2 rebounds
Nick Kennedy – 5 points, 1 rebound
Andrew Olsonawski – 4 points, 4 rebounds
Caleb Christenson – 4 points
Darwin Kasprowicz – 3 points