Maple River Season Ends Against Braham, Caledonia Loses Also

The Section 2 AA champion Maple River Eagles of the Gopher Conference saw their season end Wednesday at Target Center in a 67-58 loss to the Braham Bombers.

The Eagles finished their season 27-4 and the Bombers improved to 29-2 on the year.

It was a see-saw first 10 minutes of the game before Braham pulled away and had a 38-29 lead at the half.

I recall saying on the airwaves that Maple River head coach Chad Ostermann could not be happy with the defense because coming into the game the Eagles were allowing an average of 44 points per game.

The Bombers lived up to their name, hitting five threes and not taking much time off the clock in each offensive possession in the first half.

Maple River did get the game to single digits around the four-minute mark and had a chance to make it a one-possession game with just under two minutes to go, but turnovers hurt them in the end.

The Eagles had 12 turnovers to the Bombers' six and even though Maple River shot better, 49 percent to 48 percent, they had seven fewer shots at the basket due to the turnovers and offensive board work of Braham.

The Bombers collected 13 offensive rebounds and had just five more boards than Maple River.

The Eagles could not stop 6-foot senior Chris Olson, who dropped in three three-pointers and went to the basket in attack mode time after time. He finished with 23 points, five rebounds and four assists in 32 minutes.

Six-foot-2 junior John Larson was like a clone of Olson and finished with 19 points and 12 rebounds in 34 minutes, and 6-foot sophomore Ryan Larson had 12 points in 34 minutes.

Maple River managed to get four players into double figures.

Six-foot-1 senior Brandon Sohre led the Eagles with 13 points and five rebounds in 35 minutes, and 6-foot-2 junior Cole Sohre collected seven rebounds and 13 points in 25 minutes.

Six-foot-5 senior Will Keller and 6-foot-1 junior Jeff Lewis tallied 12 and 11 points respectively.

The No. 4 seed Bombers will play top-ranked and top-seeded St. Croix Lutheran in semifinal action 6PM Friday and the game will be on KDHL.

The Crusaders of St. Croix Lutheran had no trouble with Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton, winning 86-51 with running time in the second half.

No. 2 ranked and No. 2 seeded Caledonia lost in their first game at Williams Arena Wednesday 79-72 to Jackson County Central.

The Warriors finished their season 28-3 and the Section 3 AA champion Jackson County Central Huskies are 24-5 and play the Annandale Cardinals in the other semifinal game Friday night at 8PM.

That game will also be on KDHL 920 AM and available at www.kdhlradio.com and by downloading the free RadioPup app on your favorite mobile device.

Annandale took down the No. 3 seed Esko 52-40 in the final game at Williams Arena Wednesday.