The Fertile-Beltrami Boy’s basketball team fell behind 16-4 against Mahnomen-Waubun, but slowly battled back and eventually took the lead late on their way to a 57-47 Section 8A Tournament victory over the Thunderbirds.
FIRST HALF –
The defenses were the storyline in the opening half, as each team shut down the other offensively for the first eighteen minutes. Mahnomen-Waubun scored a layup to take the first lead of the game, but buckets from Derek Sorenson and Caiden Swenby gave the Falcons a 4-2 lead with 13:30 remaining in the half. The Thunderbirds would settle down offensively, and thanks to great defense, they would go on a 14-0 run over the next five minutes to take a 16-4 lead with 8:30 remaining in the first half. Fertile-Beltrami continued to struggle offensively, and after a few more bad turnovers, they finally connected on an Everett Balstad jumper to end a nine-minute scoring drought and make it a 16-6 Mahnomen-Waubun lead with 4:40 left until halftime. The Falcons would hit four straight free throws and cut the Mahnomen-Waubun lead down to 16-10 with 3:55 remaining, but the Thunderbirds would break a five-minute scoring drought of their own with four straight points to take a double-digit lead again at 20-10 with 2:09 left in the first half. Fertile-Beltrami tightened up defensively, and finally started to find a rhythm on offense, as they ended the first half on a 7-0 run with a jumper from Everett Balstad, a three from Derek Sorenson, and two free throws from Caiden Swenby. That would allow Mahnomen-Waubun to take a 20-17 lead into the halftime break after a strange first half. Fertile-Beltrami was led in the first half by Caiden Swenby with 6 points and had four different players score. Mahnomen-Waubun was led by Tyson McArthur and Tanner Pazdernik with 6 points each, and also had four different players score in the first half.
SECOND HALF –
The Falcons opened the second half on a 9-4 run to take a 26-24 lead with 14:28 left in the game. The run was highlighted with scores from Caiden Swenby, and a three and layup from Derek Sorenson. The Thunderbirds quickly knocked down a three to take the lead back, and after the teams spent the next several minutes trading baskets, Fertile-Beltrami found themselves slightly in front at 32-29 with 11:30 left in the game. The Thunderbirds would then put together an 11-2 run to go back in front 40-34, forcing a Falcons timeout with 7:00 remaining. The last seven minutes of the game is when Caiden Swenby would take over for Fertile-Beltrami. After a bucket from Rylin Petry, Swenby would score one as well and the Falcons were within 3 points at 41-38. Mahnomen-Waubun would counter with a layup to go back in front by 5 with 5:45 remaining, but the Falcons would then end the game on a 19-4 run for a 57-47 win. Caiden Swenby contributed 13 points for the Fertile-Beltrami and gave the Falcons the lead at 46-44 with 2:45 remaining. Fertile-Beltrami wouldn’t give the lead back the rest of the way, as they would hit 7 free throws in the final two minutes and shut down the Thunderbirds for a 57-47 victory. Caiden Swenby contributed 29 points in the winning effort all while doing it on a bad ankle according to his head coach Neil Steffes. Derek Sorenson and Rylin Petry were the other two Falcons in double figures. Mahnomen-Waubun got 13 from Tanner Pazdernik and 11 from Loden Clark in the loss.
Fertile-Beltrami improves to 25-4 on the season and now advances to the Section 8A semifinals (East Sub-Section Championship) where they will take on the top seed in the East Sub-Section, the Cass Lake-Bena Panthers. The tip-off is scheduled for 7:45 p.m. on Tuesday night back inside of Ralph Engelstad Arena in Thief River Falls and will follow the first semifinal contest between Sacred Heart and the Northern Freeze. We will carry both games on KROX starting with the RiverView Health pregame show at 5:30 for the Sacred Heart vs Northern Freeze game. Mahnomen-Waubun ends their season with a final record of 19-8.
For the full postgame interview with Fertile-Beltrami head coach Neil Steffes CLICK HERE.
| 1st | 2nd | Final | |
| Fertile-Beltrami | 17 | 40 | 57 |
| Mahnomen-Waubun | 20 | 27 | 47 |
| For Fertile-Beltrami | Points | Rebounds | Assists/Steals |
| Caiden Swenby | 29 | 5 | 2 assists/3 steals |
| Derek Sorenson | 12 | 1 | 1 assist/1 steal |
| Rylin Petry | 10 | 1 | 1 assist/3 steals |
| Everett Balstad | 4 | 4 | 2 assists/4 steals |
| Kadyn Olson | 2 | 1 | 1 steal |
| For Mahnomen-Waubun | Points |
| Tanner Pazdernik | 13 |
| Loden Clark | 11 |
| Tyson McArthur | 9 |
| Sam Zima | 9 |
| Dennis Ashley | 3 |
| Carter Clark | 2 |
