Ben Woodall Drained A Trio Of Treys And Led South O’Brien In Scoring As The Wolverines Topped Kingsley Pierson In District Tournament Play.

David Bottjen Collects One Of His Team High Seven Rebounds, Snatching This One Away From Kingley Pierson’s Boston Doeschot In The Tourney Win Over The Panthers.

If at first you don’t succeed…keep firing. South O’Brien was enjoying limited success shooting the basketball in its tournament game against Kingsley-Pierson. Still, the Wolverines trailed by just four points in a low-scoring first half. Following intermission, the shots began to fall and the South O’Brien defense remained solid. The result was a 44-35 Wolverine victory in the Class 1A District 1 semifinal game played February 16 at Kingsley.
South O’Brien entered Tuesday’s District Final against Remsen St. Mary’s with a record of 16-7. The Hawks brought a 20-2 mark into the contest at Sioux Center high school. The Substate Final is slated for Saturday, February 25 at Le Mars Community high school with tip-off at 7:00 p.m.
“KP’s defense was tough all night but I thought we took good shots all night and finally knocked them down in the second half, especially the fourth quarter,” remarked Wolverine head coach Kiley Yates. “We improved offensively as the game went on as we understood their packline defense better.”
The first half ended with the Panthers in front 15-11. With 4:22 left in the third quarter South O’Brien took its first lead of the game at 21-20 on a three-point jumper from Boston Riedemann. A free throw by Riedemann and a trey from David Bottjen staked the visitors to a 25-21 advantage after three.
Kingsley-Pierson scored the first six points of the fourth quarter to seize the lead at 27-25. Following a time out, the Wolverines moved back in front thanks to buckets from Riedemann and Bottjen. They would not trail again, going 8-for-8 from the free throw line over the final four minutes.
Yates said there was no major adjustment made during the time out. “We just settled down and continued to challenge their shots and defensive rebound,” explained the coach. “They went 3-for-23 from three for the game and that was a key stat in helping us get the victory. Limiting K-P to 35 points was a very good effort for 32 minutes versus a very good team. K-P had won 12 in a row and won 17 on the season. They are a quality team.”
Bottjen finished with 11 points, seven rebounds and four assists. Four of his five field goals came in the decisive final frame. “A very good game,” said Yates of Bottjen’s performance. The coach then noted, “Ben Woodall hit three three’s (for the game) and four big free throws in the fourth quarter.” Woodall’s 13 points led South O’Brien.
The Wolverines got eight points from Riedemann, four from Hudson Oolman, three from Derek Paulsen, two from both Sawyer Honkomp and Dain Moermond and one from Willie Conley. Pulling down five rebounds apiece were Oolman, Woodall and Conley.
South O’Brien was 14-of-32 from the field for 32 percent. Assists facilitated all but one of those baskets. The top dime dropper was Conley with eight assists. The Wolverines were successful on six of their 21 trey attempts and sank 10 of 13 charity tosses. The winners committed 12 turnovers.
S. O’Brien
6 14 19 – 44
K-P
9 6 6 14 – 35