Wolves define ërallyí in pair of RRC wins
Posted 1/29/03

On Tuesday, Jan. 21, Milacaís boys basketball team found itself trailing Princeton 39-22 at halftime on the Tigersí court.

On Thursday, two nights later at Milaca, the Wolves found themselves in another whirlwind, trailing Foley 32-16 early in the second quarter.

Whatís a team to do?

Rally.

The Wolves came back to post two crucial Rum River Conference victories, overtaking Princeton 69-66 and Foley 73-59.

"We didnít really change any part of our game in either game," said Milaca Coach Jeff Meyer. "We just got back to doing what works well for us. Fortunately, there was enough time left in both games for us to come back.

"We donít want to get in a habit of starting games slowly. Our goal is to play our game hard for 32 minutes each game and when we stray away from that we get into trouble. I am, however, proud of how we didnít give up and battled back. We showed a lot of character against two very good teams."

The road doesnít get any easier for the Wolves, who were scheduled to travel to Big Lake Tuesday night. Tonight (Thursday), Milaca travels to Braham for a non-conference game at 7:30 before hosting RRC leader North Branch Thursday, Feb. 6, also at 7:30.

Braham, the defending Sub-Section 18AA champion, boosted its record to 13-2 by stopping Foley 67-64 Monday night at Braham.

North Branch, which stopped Princeton 81-55 Thursday, Jan. 23, leads the RRC with a 7-1 record.

Milaca is 7-2 in RRC play and 10-3 overall. The Wolves lost at North Branch 69-50 Dec. 20.

"Those are two big games," said Meyer, who was hoping his team wasnít looking past Big Lake. "Both Braham and North Branch can explode on offense, so our defense will be tested."

Milaca 69, Princeton 66

It didnít take Princeton long to rekindle the memory of last yearís 88-59 trouncing of Milaca at Princeton.

In the first half, the Tigers scored on fast breaks. They slipped the ball inside to their big men, seniors Chad DeHart and Gordy Sanford for easy baskets and, behind 5-foot-6 senior guard Paul Burroughs, they scored on long-range three-pointers.

Milaca, meanwhile, struggled on offense and defense.

The end result was a 17-point, 39-22 halftime lead for the Tigers.

"We werenít running our offense the way we need to," said Meyer. "We were taking a lot of shots off the dribble rather than passing the ball around for a better shot. The result was that not only were we missing our shots, we were in an unbalanced defensive alignment when we went back down the floor and couldnít correct that in time to prevent Princeton from scoring.

"We didnít change anything at halftime...we just stressed getting back to what we do well. When we work at setting up good shots weíre a pretty efficient team."

The Wolves chipped away at the Tiger lead in the third period, trimming the deficit to 55-46 heading into the final quarter. A rebound basket by 6-10 Milaca senior center Eric Bergstrom with one second left in the third quarter sparked the flame for Milacaís fourth-quarter surge.

Back-to-back three-pointers by sophomore guard Jon Moorlag pulled Milaca to within 57-56 with 5:32 remaining. However, Princeton moved ahead 64-58 with 4:08 left.

From that point, the Wolves outscored the Tigers 11-2.

Bergstromís short jump shot gave Milaca a 65-64 edge with 2:00 left. The Tigersí final basket, a jump shot by senior guard Tyler Gronli, gave Princeton its final lead at 66-65 with 56 seconds remaining.

Bergstrom scored off a rebound to put Milaca ahead 67-66 with 31 seconds left and, after Gronli missed a pair of free throws, sophomore guard Adam Ruis made two free throws with nine seconds left to give Milaca its final 69-66 margin.

Bergstrom led Milaca with 20 points and eight rebounds while senior forward Jon Matthews, added 15 points and five assists and senior guard Tim Veurink had nine points, five rebounds, four assists and three steals.

Moorlag had eight points, all in the fourth quarter, Ruis scored eight points and junior guard Daren Koppendrayer scored seven points.

Milaca shot 49.1 percent (27-for-55) from the field while Princeton shot 60.9 percent (28-46). The Wolves had a 26-23 edge in rebounds.

DeHart scored 17 points while Gronli had 15 to lead the Tigers, who slipped to a 3-4 RRC mark and 8-6 overall record.

Milaca 73, Foley 59

Foley, which was 6-0 so far in January, took a cue from Princeton and out-hustled the Wolves in the opening minutes of play. That led to a 19-14 first-quarter lead and a 32-16 margin over the Wolves early in the second quarter.

But, once again, Milaca steadied itself, and chipped away at the deficit, cutting it to 41-33 at halftime.

The Wolves, behind six points each from Veurink (two three-pointers), Bergstrom and Koppendrayer, outscored the Falcons 23-11 in the third quarter to take a 56-52 lead into the final quarter.

Milaca pulled away by outscoring the Falcons 17-7 over the final eight minutes.

Matthews, who was 6-6 from the field and 7-8 from the foul line, led Milaca with 18 points while Bergstrom, who was 6-6 from the field and 3-3 from the foul line, had 15 points. Koppendrayer added 14 points and Veurink, who was 3-4 from three-point range, totaled 13.

Milaca shot a blistering 63.2 percent (24-38) from the field while Foley shot 45.6 percent (26-57).

Milaca's scoring edge came at the free-throw line where it made 20 of 32 attempts. Foley, which had a 27-20 edge in rebounds, made five of nine free throws.

"When we started getting the ball inside we started going to the foul line," said Meyer.

Senior guard Bryan Moshier led Foley with 18 points. Senior center Adam Dombrovski scored 13 points, all in the first half.

The Falcons dropped to an 8-6 overall record and 4-4 RRC mark.