Todd Henrickson offered the following assessment of Monday's Minnesota Class 1A, Section 6 quarterfinal.
"I think offensively in the first half we did exactly what we wanted to do," the Barnesville boys basketball coach said. "At one point, we held the top team in the state to zero points."
Repeat: the Trojans did precisely as planned, for nearly six minutes, but lost 57-25 to No. 5-ranked Ulen-Hitterdal. This contest was not a time share; the Spartans did whatever they desired over the final 26 minutes, even sneaking the guys at the end of the bench, the ones in the mismatched uniforms, onto the Memorial Auditorium floor.
"I'm very happy," said Ulen-Hitterdal coach Tom Critchley Jr., whose team will face Park Christian at 7 p.m. Thursday in the semifinals. "It was workmanlike."
The work began on the defensive end. Leading 2-0 with less than 2 minutes in the first quarter, the Spartans (24-3) implemented a half-court trap, which fed a 10-0 run in 86 seconds. The spurt was dually surprising.
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"Barnesville had seen it before," Ulen-Hitterdal senior Tom Lunde said of the trap. "They knew it was coming, but we changed some spots and kept the intensity up. It hasn't been that good before."
It was that good again in the second half. The defending section champion Spartans scored seven straight in 1 minute, 22 seconds for a 26-9 edge with 5:27 remaining in the third quarter.
Two separating runs were only the offensive rewards of Ulen-Hitterdal's pressure. Defensively, it limited Barnesville (12-14) to 10-points below its season-worst total on 11 of 44 shooting with 20 turnovers. The Trojans scored one point in the first quarter and had three through the first 14 minutes on 1 of 16 from the field.
"That seven points (allowed) in the first half egged us on," Lunde said.
As if the 6-foot-10 Lunde needed more tools. The North Dakota State-bound forward scored 18 points with 14 rebounds, five steals and four blocks. He took a seat on the Ulen-Hitterdal bench after a little more than three quarters of play, but not before leaving the large crowd with a parting shot: a steal and behind-the-back dribble which led to an old-fashioned three-point play.
"He's by far the best player the area has seen in a long time -- that I've seen, anyway," said Henrickson, whose team got 12 points and 11 rebounds from Dustin Johnson in its third loss to the Spartans. "We don't have an answer for him."
"That's why he's special," Critchley said.
So were the Spartans for three-plus quarters.
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"Offensively, we've got four, five threats out there at any time," Lunde said. "If the defense we had keeps up, we'll keep clicking."
Barnesville 1 7 13 25
Ulen-Hitterdal 12 19 39 57
BARNESVILLE: Askegaard 1 0-0 2, A. Sauve 0 0-0 0, Hughes 0 0-0 0, Anderson 1 1-2 3, Johnson 6 0-0 12, Fankhanel 1 0-1 2, Bernier 1 0-0 3, Wheeler 1 1-2 3. Totals 11 2-5 25.
ULEN-HITTERDAL: T. Lunde 8 2-3 18, Jacobson 4 2-2 11, Grafsgaard 3 0-1 6, Schultz 1 0-0 3, Abdo 0 2-2 2, Wenner 0 3-4 3, Green 2 0-2 5, B. Oberg 0 0-1 0, J. Lunde 2 0-0 4, Wang 0 1-2 1, C. Oberg 2 0-0 4. Totals 22 10-16 57. 3-point goals: Bernier, Jacobson, Schultz, Green. Total fouls: B 17, U-H 11. Rebounds: B 25 (Johnson 11), U-H 39 (T. Lunde 14). Assists: B 7 (A. Sauve 3), U-H 14 (three with 3). Steals: B 6 (A. Sauve 3), U-H 13 (T. Lunde 5). Turnovers: B 20, U-H 14.
Readers can reach Forum reporter Terry Vandrovec at (701) 241-5548
