Boys basketball: Morris/CA Tigers pull off the surprise

Mar. 7—WILLMAR — Charlie Hanson came up clutch down the stretch for Morris/Chokio-Alberta as the Tigers erased a six-point second half deficit in their sub-section semifinal victory over Montevideo on Thursday at the Big Red Gym.

Hanson scored nine of his team-best 19 points in the final 5 minutes, 48 seconds to help fourth-seeded Morris/CA to a 65-63 win over the top-seeded Thunder Hawks in the Section 3AA-North playoffs.

The Tigers (19-9) advance to play second-seeded Eden Valley Watkins in the Section 3AA-North final at 12:30 p.m. Saturday at the R/A Facility at Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall. The Eagles beat No. 2 Paynesville 72-44 also on Thursday.

"Credit to our kids for battling the whole time," Morris/CA head coach Jacob Torgerson said. "We put a complete game together after, of course, that slow start."

"(The Tigers) hit some big-time shots down the stretch," Montevideo head coach Derek Webb said. "We weren't quite as fortunate. Obviously, there's a lot of different things that we wish we could take back. But at the end of the day, I'm really proud of our group.

"We did a lot of special things this year that Montevideo basketball hasn't done in quite a while."

Hanson's third basket of the second half was a 3-pointer which tied the game 54-54 with 5:48 to play. He then hit a layup and his second 3-pointer back-to-back to give the Tigers a 61-58 lead with 2:21 remaining. His 19th point, coming on a free throw, gave the Tigers a 65-60 lead, their largest of the night, with 13.8 seconds left to help cement Morris/CA's win.

"Charlie got into what I call his 'shot' so many times," Torgerson said of the 6-foot-0 junior. "He can really be a microwave and get going and credit to him for just keeping his confidence in shooting the basketball."

Montevideo, which got off to a 13-2 run in the opening minutes of the contest, led for about 17 minutes of the first half. That was until freshman Alex Asmus hit back-to-back threes to cap off a 10-4 run that gave the Tigers a 30-28 halftime lead.

"We got out to a big lead; you knew they were going to make a big run," Webb said. "A team like that — coached well, a lot of athletes that have been competing at a high-level for a couple years — you knew they weren't going to just call it quits.

"Offensively, we got stagnant. (The Tigers) hit some shots, got on a run and got right back in it."

The Thunder Hawks, a strong shooting team from the outside, imposed their will inside early in the paint and were able to create lanes to the basket in a game where they made six 3-pointers.

"We have a lot of different dimensions; we have a lot of ways we can score," Webb said. "We just take what the defense gives us."

Carson Boike and Griffin Epema paced the Thunder Hawks. Boike notched a game-high 21 points and Epema had 18 points and six rebounds.

Boike was key down the stretch in a 14-point second-half effort. He sank a pair of free throws to give Montevideo a 58-56 lead with 3:57 to go and hit his third 3-pointer just before time expired.

The senior was one of three in the Thunder Hawks' starting lineup with Devin Ashling and Cooper Dack, who each had eight points as did junior Gannon Reidinger. Montevideo had five seniors total with Gavin Marty and Isaac Day coming off the bench.

"These five seniors are going to leave a legacy that is going to carry on for a long time," Webb said. "I think it's put Montevideo basketball on the map, which we're very excited about moving forward."

Epema, a 6-1 guard, came off Montevideo's bench last season as an eighth-grader, scored 15 points from within the perimeter and was effective inside the paint for the Thunder Hawks.

"His IQ is unbelievable," Webb said. "He'll tell me things he sees on the floor, which for a freshman, is unbelievable.

"He doesn't play like a freshman. He doesn't act like a freshman. We knew we had something up our sleeves coming into the year. He was a stud for us all summer long."

Montevideo, which beat Morris/CA twice in the regular season, finishes with a 21-7 record. It marks its first winning season since 2016-17, when the Thunder Hawks were 13-10.

"We knew we had a good team coming from summer ball," Epema said. "We played well together. We won a lot of good games against good teams. We knew we just needed to keep working everyday and build chemistry to get to where we were."