WADENA – Wadena-Deer Creek boys basketball team was unable to stay red-hot with a Section 8AA matchup against Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton on Friday night.
The Rebels (19-6, 13-2 8AA) outlasted the Wolverines (16-7, 4-4) 76-69. DGF halted WDC’s winning streak at four games.
“Biggest takeaway is our guys battled,” WDC head coach Kevin Tumberg said. “DGF is currently the overall three seed in the section with a great record and some great wins under their belt. DGF just beat the fourth seed, Hawley, by 20. To be there punch for punch with them, I was really proud of our effort tonight. Our boys are figuring out what it will take to compete in this section as playoffs are coming up.”
The game started out with back-to-back WDC threes by Kobe Synder and Peyton Church to give the Wolverines a 6-0 lead. DGF answered with a 9-0 run and WDC was down 9-6.
The Wolverines rattled off five straight points to take back the lead at 11-9 lead with about 12 minutes left in the first half.
ADVERTISEMENT
The two teams duked it out until the intermission. DGF’s Owen Leach sank a step-back 3-pointer before the buzzer to cut WDC’s lead to 39-34.
About three minutes into the second half, the Wolverines increased its lead to 46-36. The Rebels scored seven unanswered points in the next minute to cut the deficit to 46-43.
With under 12 minutes left in regulation, the two teams were tied at 52. DGF’s Brody Friend gave his team the lead at 52-50 with a putback on back-to-back possessions to grant DGF a four-point lead.
From there, the Rebels outscored WDC 24-19. In the final two minutes, Leach went a perfect 8-for-8 from the charity stripe. The Rebels as a team ended up hitting all 10 free throw attempts to secure the victory.
“At the end of the day, especially any close game and you have to start fouling, we needed DGF to start missing some free throws and get some bounces to go our way,” Tumberg said about how the game ended. “With everything stacked against us, they made all their free throws. We missed some shots and turned the ball over in the final two minutes. Closing out the game, we didn’t do a great job execution-wise down the stretch. We will learn from it and be better.”
Church finished with a team-high 26 points. He also added four rebounds and two steals. Tumberg touted his guard's performance against one of the top teams in the section.
“Peyton was a dog tonight,” he said. “Whether it was inside or outside, he was aggressive with his attacking. I told Peyton this year that the more you are attacking in and out, the more things will open up for you and your teammates. We can tell pretty early in the game with Peyton that if his first couple of shots go in, it's going to be a pretty fun night. It's always fun seeing his shots go in.”
WDC’s Teshe Loer ended with 18 points as the only other Wolverine to score in double digits. He also had a team-high 12 rebounds, with seven of those rebounds coming on the offensive end. Isaac Hamann had three steals.
Leach finished with a game-high 27. He secured the double-double with 12 rebounds and added one steal and two blocks.
ADVERTISEMENT
Tumberg learned that his team can compete with the best that Section 8AA has to offer.
“The coaching staff and I just talked about it in the locker room with the team,” he said. “We got embarrassed and blown out by Perham, Pelican Rapids and Barnesville earlier this season. After all three of those games, we felt like that wasn’t who we were. We are capable of playing with anyone and tonight proved that. I told the boys that I didn’t give them the benefit of the doubt seeing we have asterisks next to those games. Seeing that our boys can go head to head with a team in DGF, that is arguably better than those other three, we can compete with anybody.”
With the regular season coming to a close, WDC can still make some moves with some favorable section matchups coming up.
“We have three games left in the regular season with two of them being section opponents in Frazee and Park Rapids,” Tumberg said. “Luckily one of them is at home. Record-wise, Frazee and Parks Rapids aren’t very strong, but both teams are competing in the Mid-State and Heart O’Lakes Conferences playing against some really good competition. We know that those guys will give us some good games, and we have to be ready to go and hopefully fine-tune some things going into the playoffs.”
WDC 39 30- 69
DGF 34 42- 76
WADENA-DEER CREEK TEAM STATS: 27-72 (37%) FGA, 8-33 (24%) 3PA, 34 rebounds, 5 steals, 1 block, 15 turnovers.
DILWORTH-GLYNDON-FELTON TEAM STATS: 27-59 (45%) FGA, 5-16 (31%) 3PA, 31 rebounds, 10 steals, 4 blocks, 11 turnovers
ADVERTISEMENT
WADENA-DEER CREEK- Teshe Loer: 18 points, 12 rebounds; Lyrik Haug: 6 points, 3 rebounds, 1 block; Kobe Synder: 7 points, 5 rebounds, Isaac Hamann: 4 points, 4 rebounds, 3 steals; Josiah Kallevig: 5 points; Peyton Church: 26 points, 4 rebounds, 2 steals; Phillip Ross: 3 points; Nathaniel Peterson: 6 rebounds
DILWORTH-GLYNDON-FELTON- Karson Steichen: 7 points, 1 rebound, 4 steals; Drew Sheeley: 12 points, 4 rebounds, 3 steals; Owen Leach: 27 points, 12 rebounds, 1 steal, 2 blocks; Austin Anderson: 6 points, 3 rebounds; Brody Friend: 8 points, 3 rebounds, 1 block; Landon Johnson: 5 points; Grant Anderson: 11 points, 7 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 block; Peyton Aas: 1 rebound, 1 steal
The Trust Project
