Eagles beat previously unbeaten Cherry for eighth win
Sports | Published on January 4, 2022 at 6:52pm GMT+0000 | Author: Chad Koenen
0NYM currently ranked second in QRF standings
By Chad Koenen
Publisher
New York Mills remained unbeaten last week with a pair of wins at the Walker-Hackensack-Akeley Tournament last week. The Eagles, who came into the tournament with a perfect 6-0 record, defeated Lake Park-Audubon in the opening round of the tournament and previously unbeaten Cherry in the championship game.
In the opening round, Tate Olson registered a double-double with 27 points, 15 rebounds, 7 assists and 5 steals as the Eagles came away with a 65-40 win over the Raiders.
Head coach Mike Baune said Lake Park-Audubon was very conservative and made the Eagles play defense all game long. Fortunately, NY Mills was up to the challenge and came away with an important Section 6A win.
In addition to Olson, Jonah Johnson scored 13 points to go along with 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 4 steals, while Breck Hensch scored 9 points.
Noah Noffsinger had a solid game as the senior scored 7 points to go along with 5 assists and 2 rebounds and Jack Peeters rounded out the scoring with 4 points and 2 rebounds.
In the championship round, the Eagles took on the previously top ranked team in the QRF in Cherry. The Tigers came into the game with a perfect 5-0 record and defeated St. John’s Prep in the opening round of the tournament by a score of 83-54.
Baune said the Eagles knew Cherry wanted to play fast, just the like Eagles, but thought if they could bottle up the Tigers in the half court and slow them down, it would work out in NY Mills’ favor. The game plan worked as the Eagles came out on top by a score of 65-62.
“The boys made a big statement with intense defense for all 36 minutes and a very balanced scoring to carry us to a 65-62 win,” he said.
Five Eagles scored at least 8 points in the game with Olson leading the way with 17 points to go along with 18 rebounds and 5 assists. Peeters scored 16 points to go along with 9 rebounds, while Noffsinger scored 14 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists and Johnson scored 10 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists. Hensch rounded out the scoring with 8 points and 5 rebounds.
This week the Eagles, who are currently ranked second in the QRF, will host Bertha-Hewitt on Thursday night in park Region Conference action.