Perham takes down D-G-F in key Heart O' Lakes matchup

GLYNDON, Minn. – Emotions were running high from the opening tap when Perham and Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton battled for control of the Heart O’Lakes Conference in boys basketball Thursday.
The Yellowjackets used a strong first half from Zack Tellinghuisen and a solid shooting second half from Reid Moser on their way to a 67-56 victory over the Rebels.
Both teams entered the contest with identical 5-0 records in the HOL. Perham entered with an 11-1 overall record while DGF was 11-3.
However, it was Perham that exited with a firm grip on the conference lead after the game.
Moser finished with a game-high 21 points, 12 of them coming in the second half. He hit on five of his seven 3-point attempts in the win.
“You give him much room, he will knock them down. He can shoot the ball. If he gets a rhythm going, you better watch out,” Perham head coach Dave Cresap said. “He is a rhythm shooter, and he is awfully tough.”
Yet, it was another key Yellowjackets player who caught fire in the first half. Tellinghuisen hit four first half 3-pointers on his way to 17 points.
“Zack is a key player for our team. He spreads the floor so much. When he hits the shot, we are a tough team to beat,” Moser said. “It’s hard to stop everything that we have after that. That’s nice for him to finally be able to hit some shots.”
The Yellowjackets perimeter attack gave the Rebels fits in the contest, especially in the second half when Moser caught fire. Jaden Anderson hit a pair of 3-pointers as well in that half. Perham shot 40 percent (12 of 30) from the 3-point line.
“It was a good hard-fought game. The problem is Perham has lots of shooters. It’s tough to defend four 3-point shooters on the floor,” DGF head coach Mike Clark said. “We needed to do better keeping them off the 3-point line, and that didn’t happen tonight. That is something we have to work on in future games with them, that’s for sure.”
The Yellowjackets battled foul trouble throughout the night, having to go to their bench early in the first half when Jaden Anderson and Aaron Solberg picked up two first-half fouls. Developing the bench has been one of the key points for Cresap and the Yellowjackets, and they came through when called upon.
“It was about as valuable as you can get. We had a lot of new guys in the game and in a big game like this, it will help us immensely playing in an atmosphere like this against a quality team like DGF,” Cresap said. “To win it with the bench play was outstanding.”
With DGF rallying in the second half, Martin LaFond gave the Yellowjackets five key points.
“They gave us a run for our money, but we had a great step-up from Martin LaFond,” Moser said. “He stepped up. For a sophomore to come into the game and play like that is impressive. That is something we needed and we need to keep it going the rest of the season.”
LaFond followed with two more free throws, helping Perham close out the game from the line. The Yellowjackets were 9 of 13 from the line in the closing minutes of the game.
The Rebels were hoping to take advantage of some mismatches inside when Solberg was off the floor and attack the interior against the Yellowjackets.
“We wanted to take advantage of the mismatch, especially when they get Solberg out of the game,” Clark said. “When they have four guards in there, we feel that we can take it inside. The problem is we weren’t doing it. We had mismatches that we wanted and we when we get those, we have to take advantage of them, that’s for sure.”
Blake Kragnes led the way for DGF. He finished with 15 points, Cole Tahran ended with 12, and Kyle Rothschadl finished with 11 points for the Rebels.
The Yellowjackets were able to extend their five-point first half lead, 25-19, with strong shooting from the corners from Moser in the second half, as well as Solberg attacking the glass on the inside. Solberg finished with six of his 10 points in the second half.
The Yellowjackets brought the lead out to as many as 18 points, 49-31, before DGF rallied back to cut it down to nine, before LaFond’s 3-point play.
The Yellowjackets improve to 12-1 and 6-0 in the HOL, while DGF falls to 11-4 and 5-1 in the HOL.
Half: P 25, DGF 19
P: Solberg 10, Moser 21, Beachy 6, Anderson 6, LaFond 5, Tellinghuisen 17, Richter 4.
DGF: Beyer 1, Rothschadl 11, Tahran 12, Payne 8, Kragnes 15, Edeen 9.