Red Lake County looks to advance to Section 8A Finals in matchup against the Northern Freeze – on KROX Radio and TV

The Red Lake County Rebels are in pursuit of their second consecutive Section 8A Championship, and they look to get back to the finals tonight as they take on the Northern Freeze in the Section 8A Semifinals. The game is at 6 PM, and the Riverview Health Pregame Show will be at 5:30 PM on KROX Radio and KROX TV.
RLC is 26-3 on the season after an 87-39 victory over Win-E-Mac on Saturday. The Freeze are 17-9 on the season after beating Mahnomen-Waubun 72-59 on Saturday. RLC is 2-0 against the Freeze, winning 66-50 on December 13th, and 67-54 on February 12th.

FIRST HALF –
Both the Freeze and the Rebels came out of the gate hitting shots, leading to a fairly high-scoring half for the first eight minutes. The Rebels got off to a quick 8-3 lead with the help of yet another Nick Suchy three-pointer after he set the school record with nine of them in the game on Saturday. However, the Freeze bit back, feeding the ball inside to 6’4 center Avynn Ryba, who hit a finesse layup to cut the lead to 8-7. The teams then exchanged buckets for the next few minutes, with the Freeze getting the lead down to one on multiple occasions, but were unable to tie. At 19-16 Rebels, a runner by Connor Duden brought the lead to five, and then after a bucket from Trig Anderson, Ben Gullingrud drilled a three-pointer to give the Rebels their largest lead to this point, at 24-18. The Freeze had another answer, as Brekken Bring responded with a deep one to make it 24-21 with six minutes to go. The next four points were scored by the Rebels, making it 28-21 with five minutes to go, and then Connor Duden stepped up, hitting two deep threes to put the Rebels up 34-21. The Freeze cut the lead down to 10 in the final minute, but a layup by Alex Renner gave the Rebels a 36-24 lead at the break.

SECOND HALF –
The Rebels began to push the gas pedal even harder to start the second half, ballooning the lead to 15 almost immediately upon the start of the half. Connor Duden and Nick Suchy scored breakaway layups, Gullingsrud tacked on another three-pointer, and a wide-open Duden three-pointer capped off an 18-8 run to start the half, bringing the lead to 54-32 with 10 minutes remaining in the half. At this stage, the Rebels began to bring in some reserves to get some playing time, and one of them was Thor Thompson, who scored back-to-back buckets to put the Rebels up 60-34. The Freeze were unable to buy a bucket, getting good looks but continued to watch them roll off the rim. Will Gieseke then spotted up and hit a three-pointer, putting the Rebels up 63-34. The Freeze had only scored 10 points in the first 13 minutes of the half, and were not helping themselves out by missing free throws. Gullingsrud hit yet another three-pointer to put the Rebels up 32, and from there both teams completely emptied the bench. The Rebels got a long three-pointer from Dylan Lundeen, and then he hit another shot on a putback, and that helped the Rebels cruise to a 73-39 victory.

Red Lake County