The seventh seed CCHS Vikings needed free throws down the stretch to hold on and beat the seeded Nashwauk-Keewatin Spartans in the Section 7-A game played on Saturday, March 9 in the Ralph Romano gym at UMD.
Up by 7 points early—13-6— the Vikings would go for several minutes getting some good looks but not connecting. They missed short shots. They missed long shots. Meanwhile, the Spartans rebounded the Viking misses and went on an 8 point run which put them up 14-13.
With 3:59 to go in the half Will Ramberg hit a long 3 to put the Vikings back in front 16-14, but once again the Spartans went on a run, rattling off 7 straight points to make the score 21-18.
Before things got too out of hand, Will Ramberg pulled down a Spartan miss and dribbled the length of the floor, making a contested lay-up to bring the Vikings back to within 1. Seconds later the Spartans got 3 from their ninth-grade guard to go into the locker room up 24-20.
During the first half of play the Vikings never got to the free throw line.
Early in the second half the Vikings finally got to the charity stripe. First Ramberg made two and then a few seconds later Pete Sutton was fouled while shooting and made two. The Vikings were now up 26-27 in a game that would remain nip and tuck until the very end.
Spartans’ guard Spencer Engel made a short shot to put the Spartans back in front 32-30, but that would be the last time the Vikings would trail. Pete Sutton made his first 3 of the game to put the Vikings back in the lead for good, 33-32. On the next play Will Ramberg grabbed a rebound and found a wide-open Jordon Porter with a pass. Wasting no time, Porter made a long 3 and now the Vikings’ lead was 36-32.
The Spartans came right back with a 3 from Engel, cutting the Vikings’ lead to one.
On the next possession Ramberg got to the basket and missed, but he fought hard and got his own rebound, converting the miss, and the Vikings were again up by 3. Spartan center Vogel scored on a low post move and the Vikings’ lead was one with 3:56 left to play. Head coach Colin Everson called a timeout to give his players a breather and settle them down.
Two possessions later Ramberg rebounded a Porter miss and put the ball back in the basket with 1:44 on the game clock.
Jordan Porter, who battled hard all night long, picking up scores of rebounds, made a nice block on the defensive end and with 55 seconds left fed the ball to Ramberg, who was fouled. Shooting 1-1 free throws, Will made the first but missed the second.
Next, Ramberg, at 6’ 3” and battling a lineup of 6’-4”, 6’-5” and 6’-4”, picked up another defensive rebound off of a short miss by Spartan forward Jeff Lorenz and he was fouled immediately.
Again, Will made the first free throw and again missed the second, but now it was a two-possession game with 16 seconds left to play and the score 42-37.
The Spartans made the two-point basket on their next possession, but Jordan Porter was fouled on the inbounds play. Jordan made his first free throw and intentionally missed his second free throw. With only 4.7 seconds on the clock the contest was out of reach for a game Spartan team.
The Vikings left the floor with a 43-39 win.
Playing a tremendous game at both ends of the court senior leader Will Ramberg finished with 20 points, picked up more than a dozen rebounds and made several big blocks.
Ray Gordon, who fouled out, had 9 points, Jordon Porter 8 points, and Pete Sutton finished with 6 points. The rim wasn’t friendly to Adam Dorr, but Dorr played great defense and had several big rebounds in the game. Keegan Morrison also played well on defense and took care of the ball on offense.
The Vikings faced the winner of the Ely versus Lakeview Christian on Wednesday, March 13 in the Ralph Romano gym.
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