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Caledonia’s
Zach Gran used his quickness to make this steal late in the game
against Chatfield. The senior guard stole the ball and moved in for an
uncontested
lay-up.
Photo by Charlie Warner
By Charlie Warner
Argus News Editor
It’s the fundamentals that win games, and that’s exactly what the
Caledonia boys basketball team did last Saturday when they defeated
Chatfield 60-55. The Warriors made 10 of 12 free throws during the
final four minutes of Saturday afternoon’s contest in the East
Sub-section quarterfinals to seal the five-point win.
The number-four seed Warriors and five seed Gophers were nearly mirror
images of each other. Both teams were fast, athletic, passed the ball
well, shot well from the outside, and played pressing defense. And it
showed, as neither team could gain more than a five-point advantage for
most of the contest.
The Gophers scored a tip-in with no time left on the clock to take a
37-33 lead into the half. But the Warriors came right back and tied the
game up at 39-all less than two minutes into the second half.
Senior guard Craig Loeffler, who had been fighting a 101-degree fever
much of the week, picked up his fourth foul at the 15:30 mark, with the
Warriors leading by two points. Coach Josh Diersen used junior
Kyle Runningen and sophomores Isaac Fruechte and Cody Haugstad during
the next eight minutes with Loeffler on the bench. When the senior
guard returned to the game at the 7:11 mark, Caledonia led by five
points, 50-45.
Once the Warriors lead was five, they went into a spread offense to run
some time off the clock and force the Gophers out of their 1-3-1 zone.
The spread offense also forced Chatfield to foul to stop the clock and
get the ball back. But each time a Warrior went to the foul line, the
shots from the charity stripe were good, ballooning the CHS lead to
five and sometimes seven points.
“We won the game by playing good, smart basketball, and making our free
throws,” coach Diersen explained. “Once we got a lead, we forced them
out of their zone. They had to foul us to get the ball back, and we
just kept making our free throws.
“Chatfield has a good team. We knew going in we had to play our kind of
game and execute. That’s just what we did. We made 17 of 26 free
throws, and went 10 for 12 during the final minutes. That was the big
difference in the game.”
Loeffler and Kody Moore lead the Warriors with 15 points each. Moore
was 5 for 6 from the free throw line, including 4 for 4 in the waining
minutes of the game. Loeffler canned 5 for 7 free shots. Ryan
Goetzinger had 14 points and pulled down a team-high six rebounds. Zach
Gran had nine points, and a big steal late in the game, and Bobby
Augedahl had seven points, and was 4 for 4 from the free throw line.
Chatfield out-rebounded the Warriors 24-22, but turned the ball over five more times, 17-12.
The win moved the Warriors to the semi final round of the East
Sub-section and played number one seed La Crescent Tuesday night after
this issue of The Argus went to press.
You can contact Charlie Warner at
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