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Mar. 21—MINNEAPOLIS — Dawson-Boyd wanted to prove it was among the top boys basketball teams in Class A.
Now, the Blackjacks are one win away from being the top team in Class A.
Dawson-Boyd is headed to the Class A state championship game. The second-seeded Blackjacks cemented a spot in the finals with an 80-66 victory over third-seeded Red Lake County on Friday at Williams Arena on the University of Minnesota campus.
"All season, we've kind of said that you gotta go prove it and you hope you get to that game," said Dawson-Boyd head coach Cory Larson. "Now the goal becomes let's go prove that you're the number one team in the state."
The Blackjacks (29-3) face top-seeded Cherry at 11 a.m. Saturday at Williams Arena. Cherry is the defending state champion and beat fourth-seeded Nevis 79-70 in Friday's other semifinal.
The Blackjacks and Tigers matched up in the Breakdown Tip-Off Classic on Dec. 7. Cherry won, 70-64.
"There's a really good team, obviously," Dawson-Boyd senior Brayson Boike said of the Tigers. "We learned some things. We're definitely a better team now than we were then. So are they.
"It'll be a dogfight."
Dawson-Boyd found itself in quite the battle against Red Lake County.
For the second straight game, senior forward Drew Hjelmeland set the tone for the Blackjacks. After scoring all 11 of his points in the opening half against Heritage Christian Academy in the first half, Drew Hjelmeland thrived in the first 18 minutes again. He put up 14 points and nine rebounds in the opening half against Red Lake County. That helped the Blackjacks get a 26-16 edge in points in the paint.
Hjelmeland finished with 17 points on 7 of 13 shooting. He also grabbed 13 rebounds, had eight assists and three blocks.
"These two guys right here," Hjelmeland said in the post-game press conference, pointing to Boike and junior guard Gunner Liebl. "They give me the opportunity to get mismatches. Especially with Brayson's height (at 6-foot-8), I can get mismatches, go down low and try to get some easy buckets with smaller guys on me."
Dawson-Boyd built a 38-30 lead after a Boike layup with 59 seconds to go. Boike put up a Blackjack-best 28 points along with six rebounds.
"On defense, I had the first-hand experience of guarding Brayson," said Rebels senior Connor Duden.
Duden's take? "Once he got down low, you couldn't get around him and he'd just shoot right over you. He's the type of player you force into a tough middy, he's gonna make it anyway."
The Rebels cut that lead down to three thanks to Duden. He hit a floater at the 40-second mark. Duden followed that by drilling an NBA-range 3-pointer with two seconds before the buzzer. That cut the halftime deficit to 38-35.
Duden scored 17 of his game-high 30 points in the first half. He finished 6 of 12 from 3-point range.
Red Lake County took a brief 39-38 lead early in the second half following a Luke Peterson layup. But, Dawson-Boyd came back with six straight points. Four came on layups from Boike. The other bucket came from sophomore Jaxton Hastad.
Using baseline drives effectively for layups, Hastad put up 15 points on 7 of 11 shooting. He also snatched eight rebounds and dished out six assists.
"He's grown a lot as a defender and a scorer," Boike said of Hastad. "He really got us going in this game, I feel. In the second half, he went on 11 (Owen Chervestad) and really slowed him down. He stepped up big for us."
Up by two with 12 minutes to play, the Blackjacks put up nine straight points to go ahead 60-49 after a Liebl layup at 7:41. The Rebels couldn't get closer than five points the rest of the contest.
"We played hard," said Red Lake County head coach Steve Philion. "The size wore us down a little bit at the end,"
After Red Lake County shot 50% from the first in the first half, the Blackjacks' defense held the Rebels to 34.4% shooting after halftime.
"We had to get the ball away from those guys' hands," Hjelmeland said, referring to Duden and Chervestad. "Those guys were facilitating everything for them. So it was a big key for us to make sure they were passing the ball and getting it somewhere else. So like trapping it or switching it to try to shut those two guys down."
Liebl said about guarding the Rebels on the perimeter, "I was trying to get a hand in their face and trying to not let them make their shots in rhythm,"
Now, the Blackjacks prepare for a regular-season rematch with a state title on the line.
"We were still trying to figure out if we belonged in the conversation with Cherry back in December," Larson said. "... The big thing for us is I think we compete a lot harder defensively than we did back in December."
Count Red Lake County among the believers in the Blackjacks.
"I got Dawson, no disrespect to Cherry," Chervestad said. "It's going to be a great game for sure."
Continue reading...
Now, the Blackjacks are one win away from being the top team in Class A.
Dawson-Boyd is headed to the Class A state championship game. The second-seeded Blackjacks cemented a spot in the finals with an 80-66 victory over third-seeded Red Lake County on Friday at Williams Arena on the University of Minnesota campus.
"All season, we've kind of said that you gotta go prove it and you hope you get to that game," said Dawson-Boyd head coach Cory Larson. "Now the goal becomes let's go prove that you're the number one team in the state."
The Blackjacks (29-3) face top-seeded Cherry at 11 a.m. Saturday at Williams Arena. Cherry is the defending state champion and beat fourth-seeded Nevis 79-70 in Friday's other semifinal.
The Blackjacks and Tigers matched up in the Breakdown Tip-Off Classic on Dec. 7. Cherry won, 70-64.
"There's a really good team, obviously," Dawson-Boyd senior Brayson Boike said of the Tigers. "We learned some things. We're definitely a better team now than we were then. So are they.
"It'll be a dogfight."
Dawson-Boyd found itself in quite the battle against Red Lake County.
For the second straight game, senior forward Drew Hjelmeland set the tone for the Blackjacks. After scoring all 11 of his points in the opening half against Heritage Christian Academy in the first half, Drew Hjelmeland thrived in the first 18 minutes again. He put up 14 points and nine rebounds in the opening half against Red Lake County. That helped the Blackjacks get a 26-16 edge in points in the paint.
Hjelmeland finished with 17 points on 7 of 13 shooting. He also grabbed 13 rebounds, had eight assists and three blocks.
"These two guys right here," Hjelmeland said in the post-game press conference, pointing to Boike and junior guard Gunner Liebl. "They give me the opportunity to get mismatches. Especially with Brayson's height (at 6-foot-8), I can get mismatches, go down low and try to get some easy buckets with smaller guys on me."
Dawson-Boyd built a 38-30 lead after a Boike layup with 59 seconds to go. Boike put up a Blackjack-best 28 points along with six rebounds.
"On defense, I had the first-hand experience of guarding Brayson," said Rebels senior Connor Duden.
Duden's take? "Once he got down low, you couldn't get around him and he'd just shoot right over you. He's the type of player you force into a tough middy, he's gonna make it anyway."
The Rebels cut that lead down to three thanks to Duden. He hit a floater at the 40-second mark. Duden followed that by drilling an NBA-range 3-pointer with two seconds before the buzzer. That cut the halftime deficit to 38-35.
Duden scored 17 of his game-high 30 points in the first half. He finished 6 of 12 from 3-point range.
Red Lake County took a brief 39-38 lead early in the second half following a Luke Peterson layup. But, Dawson-Boyd came back with six straight points. Four came on layups from Boike. The other bucket came from sophomore Jaxton Hastad.
Using baseline drives effectively for layups, Hastad put up 15 points on 7 of 11 shooting. He also snatched eight rebounds and dished out six assists.
"He's grown a lot as a defender and a scorer," Boike said of Hastad. "He really got us going in this game, I feel. In the second half, he went on 11 (Owen Chervestad) and really slowed him down. He stepped up big for us."
Up by two with 12 minutes to play, the Blackjacks put up nine straight points to go ahead 60-49 after a Liebl layup at 7:41. The Rebels couldn't get closer than five points the rest of the contest.
"We played hard," said Red Lake County head coach Steve Philion. "The size wore us down a little bit at the end,"
After Red Lake County shot 50% from the first in the first half, the Blackjacks' defense held the Rebels to 34.4% shooting after halftime.
"We had to get the ball away from those guys' hands," Hjelmeland said, referring to Duden and Chervestad. "Those guys were facilitating everything for them. So it was a big key for us to make sure they were passing the ball and getting it somewhere else. So like trapping it or switching it to try to shut those two guys down."
Liebl said about guarding the Rebels on the perimeter, "I was trying to get a hand in their face and trying to not let them make their shots in rhythm,"
Now, the Blackjacks prepare for a regular-season rematch with a state title on the line.
"We were still trying to figure out if we belonged in the conversation with Cherry back in December," Larson said. "... The big thing for us is I think we compete a lot harder defensively than we did back in December."
Count Red Lake County among the believers in the Blackjacks.
"I got Dawson, no disrespect to Cherry," Chervestad said. "It's going to be a great game for sure."
Continue reading...
