By Chad Koenen

Publisher

After a first half in which just about everything that could have went wrong did, the New York Mills Eagles fought back and matched the Mahnomen/Waubun Thunderbirds point-for-point in the final 18 minutes of action on Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately the second half comeback fell short as the Eagles fell to the Thunderbirds by a score of 77-51 in their regular season opener. 

“We had about the worst offensive half you could have to start, shooting 12 percent from the field and scoring only 7 points and down 33-7,” said head coach Mike Baune. “So our goal after half was to put that behind us and win the second half and show who we really are and we did just that. We were showed a ton of fight and got the lead down to 13 points within 10 minutes or so of game clock, but credit to M/W as they capitalized on the pressure, fast paced game we had to play and kept scoring right along with us from that point.”

The Eagles went just 9-27 from the free throw line on Saturday, which Baune said will be a point of emphasis this week. 

“They are a tough team for a lot of reasons. We built some solid momentum going into a huge game against a very much improved Sebeka team this week and we’re excited for the challenge,” said Baune. 

The Eagles were led offensively by Teagan Lausten who scored 14 points to go along with 6 rebounds. Jacob Thorsrud scored 11 points and pulled down 6 rebounds, while Braxton Ehnert scored 8 points, 4 assists and finished with 4 steals, while Sam Kopveiler chipped in with 8 points and 8 rebounds in the loss. 

This week the Eagles will host Sebeka on Thursday night in their Park Region Conference opener.