Knights drop Bobcats 53-48 in District 1AA championship game

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SIOUX FALLS – The Bobcats had their chances down the stretch in their 53-48 loss to the Knights in Friday’s District 1AA championship game at O’Gorman High School.

Trailing 49-39 after Jaron Zwagerman’s basket with 2 1/2 minutes left, Brookings quickly cut the margin to six points on two free throws and a layin by Carter Holm on back-to-back possessions.

Matt Cartwright knocked down a jumper to push OG’s lead back to eight, 51-43, with 1:32 on the clock, before Brennan Carlson converted in the lane after Drew Cole pulled down an offensive rebound and the ‘Cats were back within six at 51-45 with 70 seconds to play.

After an O’Gorman timeout, the Knights came up empty and the Bobcats had a chance to make it a one-possession game, but JP Costello drew an offensive foul against Holm to give OG the ball with 33.8 seconds left.

A quick foul sent Cartwright to the line where the senior missed the front end of a bonus try and Brookings was still in business with 30 seconds remaining.

Carlson’s contested 15-footer drew iron and the ‘Cats ended up having to foul Cartwright for the second time with 19.4 seconds on the clock.

Cartwright again missed the first try of the bonus, but Brookings came up empty again and fouled Cartwright yet again, sending him to the line for the double bonus.

The third time was the charm as the Augustana commit converted both tosses to push the Knights’ lead to 53-45, but then he fouled Holm near halfcourt, sending the Bobcat senior to the charity stripe for two with just 7.7 seconds left.

Holm made his first and missed the second on purpose, allowing Josh Mohs to grab the offensive rebound and score to get the ‘Cats within five at 53-48 with 4.9 to play.

Following a Brookings timeout, the Bobcats put on the full-court pressure, but the Knights went deep on the inbounds pass and ran out the clock in their frontcourt to secure the win.

Early on, it didn’t look as if the ‘Cats would be fouling late to try to get back into the game as Brookings built an 11-6 lead following a two-footer by Cole off a sweet dish from Holm with 1:35 to play in the first quarter.

Cartwright hit a jumper with 12 seconds left in the first to make it 11-8, Brookings, after the first eight minutes.

Cole opened the second-period scoring for a 13-8 Bobcat advantage before Sam Wilber connected on a jumper to make it 15-12 with 6 1/2 minutes left.

But Brookings didn’t score again until there was less than a minute to play before halftime as OG went on an 8-0 run to go up 20-15.

Carlson ended the drought with an eight-footer in the lane as the Bobcats trailed 20-17 at halftime.

“In the second quarter, the offense was very stagnant,” said BHS coach Travis Engebretson. “We talked about that all Wednesday and all Thursday – we’re going to have to move, we’re going to have to get vertical on the offensive end.

“And I felt we just did too much standing.”

Cartwright drained back-to-back 3-pointers before Carlson answered with his own trey and later added a free throw as OG led 26-21 midway through the third quarter.

After Zwagerman scored for the Knights, Wilber hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key and Carlson added the back end of a two-shot trip to the line to get the ‘Cats within 28-25 with 90 seconds to play in the third.

But Louis Peterson dropped a 3 and Costello scored on a turnaround jumper to give O’Gorman a 33-25 advantage after three quarters.

The Knights built their lead to double digits at 40-30 with five minutes to play and still led by 10 at 49-39 before the ‘Cats’ late rally.

Cartwright finished with a game-high 22 points as O’Gorman punched their ticket to next weekend’s Class AA State Tournament in Rapid City. Costello chipped in with eight points and six rebounds while Zwagerman contributed seven points and six boards.

Carlson led the Bobcats with 15 points and six boards as Holm added 14 points, six rebounds and four assists.

Brookings, 18-4, plays host to Brandon Valley on Tuesday night in a Region 1AA game. The Lynx stayed alive with a 61-55 overtime win over Washington in the District 2AA third-place game.

“We just have to come to play,” Engebretson added. “It’s on our home court and just play Bobcat basketball. If we get the effort we had tonight, I feel good about it.”

Tip off is at 7 p.m. at Bob Jostad

SIOUX FALLS O’GORMAN 53, BROOKINGS 48

Brookings (18-4)

Josh Mohs 2-9 0-0 4, Carter Holm 3-7 8-9 14, Jameson Meyer 1-2 1-1 3, Brennan Carlson 6-13 2-4 15, Devin Coughlin 0-6 0-0 0, Sam Wilber 2-3 0-0 5, Drew Cole 3-3 0-0 7, Ryan Argust 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 17-43 11-14 48.

Sioux Falls O’Gorman (19-3)

Louis Peterson 2-3 0-1 5, Michael Statz 1-2 0-0 2, Isaac Struck 0-2 0-0 0, Joey Messler 2-3 1-1 5, Matt Cartwright 9-21 2-4 22, Akoi Akoi 0-1 0-0 0, Jaron Zwagerman 3-4 1-2 7, Carter Kosiak 2-4 0-0 4, JP Costello 4-9 0-2 8. Totals 23-49 4-10 53.

Brookings                 11   6   8 23 – 48

S.F. O’Gorman           8 12 13 20 – 53

3-point goals – B 3-11 (Cole 1-1, Wilber 1-2, Carlson 1-3, Holm 0-1, Coughlin 0-4), SFO 3-7 (Cartwright 2-5, Peterson 1-1, Messler 0-1). Rebounds – B 25 (Holm, Carlson 6), SFO 31 (Zwagerman, Costello 6). Assists – B 8 (Holm 4), SFO 10 (Peterson, Cartwright 3). Steals – B 3 (Mohs, Meyer, Carlson 1), SFO 5 (Statz, Struck, Messler, Zwagerman, Kosiak 1). Turnovers – B 11, SFO 9. Total fouls – B 16, SFO 19. Fouled out – none.