South O’Brien found its groove in the middle two quarters and then held off Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn down the stretch to earn a 62-53 win over the Hawks February 7 at Paullina. The victory enabled the Wolverines to conclude the War Eagle Conference portion of the schedule with a winning mark of 6-4.
“It was a very good rivalry win over HMS, who has an excellent basketball team,” said South O’Brien head coach Kiley Yates. “We won the O’Brien County championship with two wins over HMS and a win over Sheldon earlier in the season. I am pleased with the progress of this group and look forward to the postseason as we attempt to reach our potential.”
The Hawks shook off an early 4-0 deficit to lead 22-11 after one quarter. South O’Brien stormed back to tie the game 29-all at halftime. The Wolverines continued the momentum after halftime and led 51-41 at the end of three. “We did a very good job swarming Lance Berends in the low post with double and triple teams,” explained Yates. “We settled down and ran good offense and scored the ball.”
On two occasions in the fourth quarter HMS cut the lead to four points, the last coming with 1:25 remaining. The Hawks would not score again. Meanwhile, South O’Brien added five free throws to cement the win.
The Wolverines committed just three turnovers compared to 13 for HMS. That helped South O’Brien offset the 47 percent shooting from the Hawks by getting off 15 more shots. The home team was 21-of-62 from the floor (34 percent) and HMS was 22-of-47. South O’Brien shot with roughly the same accuracy from long range, draining nine treys in 27 tries. The Hawks were 5-of-25 from beyond the arc and 4-of-5 at the charity stripe. The winners went 11-for-14 at the line.
South O’Brien got 12 points from Boston Riedemann, 11 from David Bottjen, nine from both Ben Woodall and Willie Conley, six apiece from Hudson Oolman, Sawyer Honkomp and Derek Paulsen and three from Dain Moermond. Riedemann supplied four assists, Bottjen three, Oolman, Woodall and Conley two apiece and Moermond one.
The top Wolverine rebounders were Bottjen with eight boards and Oolman with seven. Oolman made three steals and Paulsen two. Moermond recorded a blocked shot.
HMS
22 7 12 12 – 53
S. O’Brien
11 18 22 11 – 62