The Knight Touch

The North Star Knights and Turner Tornadoes have been pretty evenly matched all season long. And though the prospect of playing Box Elder in the District 9C semifinals was a daunting one, both teams badly wanted that chance, and they played like it against each other.

In the opening boys game of the 2014 District 9C tournament Wednesday afternoon at the Havre High gymnasium, the fourth-seeded Knights held off a strong charge from the fifth-seeded Tornadoes, winning 51-42 and advancing to meet the No. 1 Bears today at 2:30 p.m.

North Star had to overcome a third-quarter surge by Turner, but in the end, Knights’ head coach Cody Donoven was proud of the way his team battled against the upset-minded and much-improved Tornadoes.

“They (Turner) give everybody a tough game,” Donoven said. “But we have a pretty experienced team. This is pretty much the same team as last year, and I thought that played a big role in this game. We made some big free throws at the end, and we got really big defensive stops in the fourth quarter.”

North Star needed the stops because Turner battled all day. Lucas Reed scored the first five points of the game, helping the Tornadoes jump out quick. But Gavin Spinler hit back-to-back 3-pointers, as the Knights went on an 8-0 run and led 12-9 at the end of the first period.

Things stayed tight for much of the rest of the game. Payton Peterson gave North Star a lift in the second quarter, and the Knights were able to build a 19-13 lead. But a three by Tristan Billmayer and a putback by Reed in the final seconds of the half helped Turner stay close, trailing just 21-18 at intermission.

Things got even more interesting early in the third period. Dylan Welsh opened the second half with a triple and eventually Turner ripped off a 10-2 run and had a 27-23 lead with 5:30 remaining in the third stanza. Once again, North Star answered. After two Cooper Spicher free throws, Spinler nailed another trey, and North Star finished the third quarter on an 8-1 run, which gave the Knights a 36-30 lead with just eight minutes left.

“I think we stayed poised there because we took better care of the basketball,” North Star senior Quinn Spinler said. “Sometimes we get too excited and we need to settle down. We’ve worked really hard on taking better care of the ball, and when we do that, and play defense, then we are OK. And I thought we did those things better today.”

Still, the Tornadoes trailed by just six points heading into the final period and though they cut it to four a couple of times, that’s as close as North Star would allow them to get. Spicher and Peterson had a big fourth quarter while Gavin Spinler hit key foul shots to help hold the Tornadoes off. Turner did hit some key shots down the stretch, but in the end, turnovers and rebounding hurt the Tornadoes. Turner turned the ball over 23 times, while North Star won the rebounding battle, 40-27.

“I’m proud of these guys,” Donoven said. “They’ve done everything we’ve asked them to do this season. They work awfully hard and hard work won us this game today.”

Spicher notched 16 points and grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds to lead the Knights. Gavin Spinler hit three trey’s and scored 14, while Peterson gave the Knights nine points and nine rebounds off the bench. Turner (5-14) which will play in a loser-out game Friday night at 8, was led by Reed’s game-high 23 points. He had a strong outing all the way around, going 9-of-14 from the field, 5-of-8 from the foul line and also pulling down 10 rebounds. Welsh added eight points.

Now, with just their sixth win of the season, the Knights (6-13) will take on the herculean task of trying to slay the Bears in today’s semifinal. Box Elder went unbeaten in league play this season and beat the Knights handily, both in Box Elder and Rudyard. Still, the Knights relish the chance to face the No. 1 team in Class C.

“We didn’t want to overlook Turner,” Quinn Spinler said. “We knew they would be a tough game for us. But we have been anticipating playing Box Elder for a couple of weeks now, and we’re excited for it. We have been looking forward to it and it has been hard not to be focused on it.”

“We have to go out and play with nothing to lose,” Donoven added. “We’ll have to play our best game of the season by far, and they’ll (Bears) have to be at their worst. They are very good. But we’re excited to have the opportunity to play them.”

North Star 51, Turner 42

Turner 9 9 12 12 – 42

North Star 12 9 15 15 – 51

North Star – Cooper Spicher 5-11 6-12 16, Quinn Spinler 1-9 2-3 4, Gavin Spinler 4-14 3-6 14, Payton Peterson 4-7 1-3 9, Sam Ulmen 2-4 0-0 4, Matt Helmbrecht 1-4 0-0 2, Thatcher Smith 0-1 0-0 0, Jaxon Simonson 0-3 3-3 2. Totals 17-53 14-26 51.

Turner – Dylan Welsh 3-10 1-2 8, Eddie Harmon 1-1 0-0 2, Tyler Humphreys 0-4 0-0 0, Tristan Billmayer 1-5 0-0 3, Bret VanValkenburg 2-6 0-0 4, Lucas reed 9-14 5-8 23, Reece Hutton 1-2 0-0 2. Totals 17-42 6-10 42.

3-pointers: Turner 2-12 (Welsh, Billmayer), North Star 3-15 (G. Spinler 3); Rebounds: Turner 27 (Reed 10), North Star 40 (Spicher 12); Fouls: Turner 20, North Star 13; Fouled out: Humphreys.