Falcon Boys Claw Out Overtime Road Win in Basketball

The Faribault Falcon boys basketball team was very fortunate to pick up a 49-48 overtime victory at Mankato East on Tuesday night.

At times the Falcons appeared to be sleepwalking, and their free throw shooting was an atrocious 5 for 14 in the game.

If I had a clock keeping time of possession of the lead, Mankato East would clearly have led in that statistic but the only thing that matters is Faribault got the W.

It was not pretty, but a W is a W is a W.

Mankato East came into the game unbeaten in the Big Nine. Their 6-2 record included losses to Delano and Waseca. With the win the Falcons are now 6-1 overall and 3-1 in Big Nine play.

The Cougars took a 24-22 lead into halftime and clearly Faribault should have had the lead.

The Falcons were 3 of 10 from the free throw line in the first half with four different players shooting them and nobody able to convert on more than one in a trip. Faribault finished the game a woeful 5 of 14 from the so called charity stripe.

Cody Ehlers was nearly the entire Falcons offense in the second half. He had 17 of his 19 points in the second half and was named one of our Faribault State Farm Insurance agents Faribault players of the game courtesy of State Farm agents Tony Langerud and Jason Krohn of Faribault.

The 6-foot senior scored four of the team's six overtime points and had five of the team's nine second-half field goals to lead the way.

Six-foot-2 senior Chase Ernste and 5-foot-9 junior Bidong Tut were our other State Farm Faribault players of the game.

Tut led all players in the first half with nine points and finished with that number and Ernste had 10 points and a number of rebounds and a couple of his typical hustle plays that don't show up in the box score but certainly help your team win.

The Falcons had just one point off their bench and were without the services of senior guard T.J. Hunt who, was in the Mayo Clinic with a collapsed lung. Falcon head coach Lance Walsten is unsure how long Hunt will be sidelined and said his team certainly missed him.

Mankato East had three players in double figures: 6-foot-4 junior Damani Hayes had 15 points, 6-foot-2 senior Bill Busuri had 11 and 6-foot-6 junior Uhana Ochan had 10.

Mankato East didn't exactly put on a clinic in shooting free throws either, finishing the game 3 of 8. What cost the Cougars the game though were three turnovers in overtime to Faribault's one.

Mankato East is at John Marshall on Friday while the Falcons host Red Wing. We will have the girls game at Red Wing on Power 96 Radio Friday.

Thursday night the Falcon wrestling dual with Rochester Mayo will be featured on Power 96 Radio.

Falcon boys hockey at home against Rochester Century will be on KDHL on Saturday beginning at 12:45PM.