It was a hungry Northland Pioneers team that faced the Central Lakes Raiders Saturday.
The Raiders sent them home starving as CLC made crucial free throws in the stretch run to defeat the Pioneers 73-63.
Northland came into the game needing a win to land one of the four spots from the Northern Division to compete at the Minnesota College Athletic Conference state tournament in two weeks.
Central Lakes entered owning a first-place tie with Vermilion and playing for the top spot in the tournament bracket.
The Raiders, behind 14 first-half points from Alex Koch, led 35-33 at the break. In the second half, pulled away thanks to 13-of-16 shooting from the free throw.
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Koch led all scorers with 18 points, including 4-5 from behind the 3-point line. Radamus Jones finished with 14 points followed by N'Gai Dixon with 10.
"Their No. 1 goal tonight was to play a halfcourt game with us," said head coach Jim Russell. "As you can see they execute really well in that offense. It is hard, but it was great to see us gut it out at the end and make our free throws in clutch spots, and get some key rebounds."
The Raiders outrebounded Northland 39-34 and were led by Dixon and Davaghndre Jones with eight each. The Raiders shot 75 percent from the foul line, including four key ones from Jayelyn Price at the end.
"They were looking to foul Price at the end of the game on purpose and he stepped up and went 4-4 from the foul line," said Russell. "That says a lot for our guys to step up and do that in a very long season."
CLC established the tempo early as it jumped to a 13-2 lead. The Pioneers stepped up their defense and executed their halfcourt offense to trail by two at halftime.
"It is always nice to come out in a rhythm and we were finding each other to start the game and it was a total team effort," said Koch. "We just need to work in that next week on finding that kind of consistency."
In the second half, the Raiders built a lead of 45-37 at the 16:42 mark, and 59-49 at the 6:27 mark of the second half. That forced the Pioneers to foul and the Raiders hit their free throws and secured rebounds
Russell played 10 players as the Raiders were coming off of a Friday night win against Itasca.
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"This was good for us and it was good for our bench to understand that they have to stay involved and stay focused for us to be able to do what we want to do at the state tournament," said Russell. "Those back-to-back games are always tough, especially 8 p.m. last night and 3 p.m. (Saturday)," Koch added. "It's never easy and you don't always have your legs under you. Come tournament time when you have hopefully three games in three days, you are going to have to be in the best shape of the season and these back-to-back games help."
Koch also admitted that the team was battling through a tough week, which started with a loss to Vermilion last Saturday.
"This time of the year is always the hardest," he said. "We are still trying to shake off that tough conference loss to Vermilion, but we are a resilient team. This is one of those games that wasn't that pretty and we found a way to win."
Northland 33 30 - 63
Central Lakes 35 38 - 73
CENTRAL LAKES
Darsean Woodson 7, Radamus Jones 14, Trey Heinsius 1, Jake Dryer 5, N'Gai Dixon 10, Davaghndre Jones 9, Alex Koch 18, Jayelyn Price 6, Deshaun Patterson 3. FG 24-56 (43 percent), FT 18-24 (75 percent). 3-point 7-20 (35 percent). Division: 11-1. Overall: 21-4. Next: vs. Fond du Lac at Cloquet, 8 p.m. Wednesday.
NORTHLAND
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Caleb Scharber 6, Seth Moise 4, Andy Arias 6, John Jenkins 13, Chris Williams 5, Owen Ellefson 9, Creon Reed, Tate Mosher 10, Mark Geiman 2, Steven Clark 8. FG 23-59 (39 percent), FT 9-15 (60 percent). 3-point 8-23 (35 percent). Division: 5-7. Overall 12-13
