MOORHEAD – Moorhead boys basketball head coach Corey Zimmerman has been in the ear of his
6-foot-7 senior center Nick Wiesmann, ensuring him his time would come. He’s asked him to do the little things that don’t come with a spotlight, but there was always that promise that one day it would shine on him.
“I’ve asked him to do things this year that have taken him out of the stat sheet,” Zimmerman said. “He’s our trigger man. Defensively, he’s doing some different things where he might not get the pub. You don’t see it in the paper or anything.”
Moorhead guard Cody Dorow calls him “Baby Wies,” but it was Wiesmann who rocked Rogers to sleep with his 12 second-half points in a 66-50 win for the Spuds at Moorhead on Friday.
“Tonight was his night, and he was ready,” Zimmerman said. “He took advantage of it. That’s what you want to see a guy do.”
The Spuds trailed 32-27 early in the second half, but answered with a 14-0 run behind six points from Wiesmann. He scored on a fadeaway jumper, a spot-up jumper and a putback off a rebound. All of this while holding 6-foot-9 Rogers senior Cole Murray to five points.
“They weren’t really playing on me, so I decided to see what I could do,” said Wiesmann, who finished with 14 points and eight rebounds. “My shots were hitting, and I tried to lead the team as best I could.”
Rogers (2-1) cut the lead to 46-42, but Moorhead would close the game on a 20-8 run.
“We just had to grind it out,” Zimmerman said. “Teams are going to make runs, and you have to be able to maintain, not be afraid of it, not panic, and just do the things that you’ve been doing to this point.”
It took last season’s Moorhead team 16 games to get six wins, and the Spuds finished 4-3 against Class 4A, Section 8 teams. With Friday’s win, the Spuds moved to 6-0 and 4-0 in section play. Dorow can call Wiesmann a baby all he wants, but there’s a lot of returners from last season’s squad that have grown up.
“I think the experience from last season is big for us,” said Dorow, who finished with a game-high 21 points to go along with four steals. “It took a long time to win six games last year, but we’re really just showing what we got this year. (Wiesmann) had a big matchup with (Cole Murray), so it was nice to see him win that one.”
Moorhead was up 20-13 in the first half, but Rogers closed the half on a 15-7 run to take a 28-27 lead into the break. Steffan Musoke hit a layup and Mitch Liebert netted a putback to push the lead to 32-27 on the first two possessions for Rogers in the second half. Wiesmann hit a jumper, Dorow buried a 3-pointer, Shane Steckler hit two free throws for two of his 12 points and the 14-0 run was on for the Spuds.
“They stayed calm, stayed collected and played our game,” Zimmerman said. “That comes with veteran leadership. (Undefeated in section) is a big thing. (Rogers) is a great team. They’re going to be ready for us come tournament time.”
Half: Rogers 28, Moorhead 27
ROGERS: Musoke 12, Wilson 7, Bloom 5, Murray 5, Liebert 4, Heyer 5, Alexander 10, Bohnsack 2.
MOORHEAD: Dorow 21, Steckler 12, Bye 15, Engen 4, Wiesmann 14.
