Momentum is a funny thing

Momentum is a funny thing. Sibley East seemed to be down ten points most of the evening and with the game moving to the final six or seven minutes the observations of "Sibley East looks exhausted" came from the crowd. And the Wolverines definitely looked gassed. Facing a Mayer Lutheran team that threw ten guys on the floor continually defending hard with an occasional trap and regular full court attention the Crusaders zapped the energy out of Sibley East.

Ian Berg looked the most tired of anybody. In the huddle he was bent over gasping for air and knowing that he's the point guard having to face all the pressure most in the stands pretty much left the Wolves for dead. And why not?

Tuesday night's sub-section final had a much similar pattern to the February 4th game Mayer Lutheran won 69-51, at least for 80 percent of the game. The Crusaders sent several guys Berg's way in the backcourt and made him dribble his way through what seemed like a minefield of pressure. Sometimes Ian made it with his crafty skills and other times the traps set spelt doom. Twenty-one turnovers in all is what Mayer Lutheran collected from Sibley East.

The Crusaders held on to a ten or eleven point lead for the better part of the game and had it not been for the seven Marshall Bjorklund blocks this game would surly have been wrapped up. So many times Mayer Lutheran's offense created fantastic shots near the rim it's just that the future NDSU Bison starting forward cleaned up the mess his team's defense left. And it wasn't your normal taking out the garbage, Marshall was sending the trash in all different directions emphatically. Some of these blocks had me laughing, like I was that high Afro wearing baseball player in the move The Rookie chuckling in amazement.

However, Marshall or no Marshall this team needed more than that because Mayer Lutheran was just to deep. And with guys doubled over catching their breath things didn't look good for Sibley East. But then something happened. The Wolverines received a Bjorklund score and then put on the press themselves. A Crusader lost the ball and from about ten yards away Berg sprinted and dove at the ball smacking it to a teammate in a quick motion Sibley East eventually scored.

The exhausted became the excited. The jam-packed crowd started howling from the black and gold side as Berg's dive coupled with a driving score from him hit lit a spark. McKoy Rodning dropped a couple threes and the team really started to believe. The Mayer Lutheran lead began to shrink. Suddenly players who seemed tired and desperate were fidgeting with excitement. Shortly after, Marshall would score off a Crusader turnover but not on the first try. His first and only miss of the night would be a point blank lay-up in transition with one defender around him and another hustling back to rebound. Lucky for his team Bjorklund powered through all bodies and chased down his miss to tie the game at 55.

The black and gold fan base was going insane jumping around like they were in Pittsburg and not Dassel-Cokato. Mayer Lutheran needed a time-out to get something called. Here we had a tie game and when play restarted the Crusaders pushed the ball to the right side. Then back to the left. Then to the right. A team of so much talent who had already beaten these Wolverines twice this year looked a little confused on where to go. The ball came back from the right to the left and that's when Berg took his chance on the wing.

Jumping into the passing lane Ian Berg tapped the ball to mid-court and chased it down. Using his long strides he caught up to the ball but keeping a good pace he made it all the way to the rim using his long arms to extend laying the ball off the glass before a Crusader could close.

There was 8.1 seconds left on the clock and Mayer Lutheran called another time-out now down a field goal. Bringing the ball up the floor they went left and then back right while the clock was ticking and before they could even get a shot up over a strongly contesting Wolverine defense the buzzer sounded. No shot was officially attempted for the Crusaders and that was the game, 57-55. The Wolverines had defeated Mayer Lutheran for the first time in three games this year and then came the wave of black and gold out of the crowd. It was pure jubilation on that side of the gym while on the other it was stunned expressions for those in red and black.

In front of one of his future coaches (David Richman of NDSU) Marshall scored on ten of 11 shot attempts scoring 24 points. He also had a dozen rebounds and seven blocked shots. Berg finished with 13 points, three assists, and an incredible eight steals. Rodning finished with nine points as did senior Justin Rettman. For Mayer Lutheran nine guys scored with C.J. Byrne having a high of 13.

Sibley East will next play the Foley Falcons for state. In the nightcap at Dassel-Cokato Foley pretty much controlled Maple Lake from start to finish winning 69-50. Mitch Wurm is a pretty talented 6-foot-4 scorer for the Irish putting up 26 points but he didn't have much help as the next highest point total on the squad was five.

Foley senior point guard Nick Jansen led the 16-11 Falcons with 22 points including a few triples and he ran the offense very well. Senior Erik Oines added 16 and junior Aaron Zimmer scored ten points that included a pretty thunderous two-handed slam in transition.