The Becker boys basketball team gave a valiant effort, but came up short in last week’s section semifinal game against Rocori.
Rocori 75, Becker 64
Senior Michael Veldman had 17 points and senior Blake Barthel had 13 but it wasn’t enough as Becker lost by nine in the Section 5AAA semifinals last Saturday night at St. Cloud State's Halenbeck Hall.
Junior Jon Olson had 20 points to lift No. 2-seeded Rocori past No. 5 Becker 77-64.
Sophomore Derek Thompson added 19 points for the Spartans. Senior Cole Field and junior Austin Overman each had 12 points for Rocori.
Dillon Radunz added 11 for Becker.
Rocori held a 41-25 halftime lead and it appeared they may double up their 16 point lead to start the second half. But Coach Josh Ihrke’s team didn’t back down and in fact they gave the talented Spartans a run for their money, scoring 39 points to Rocori’s 34 to make the game interesting.
Becker Scoring: Veldman 17, Barthel 13, Radunz 11, Brown 7, Zack Moeller 6, Logan Andersen 2, Matt Yoerg 2, Davalos 2, Hunter McCalla 2 and Tanner Niedenfeuhr 2.
Rocori Scoring: Olson 20, Thompson 19, Field 12, Overman 12, Connor Schoborg 4, Alec Anderson 4 and Skippy Virchow 4.
Becker finished the season 12-16 and 9-5 in the Granite Ridge Conference.
Veldman led the Bulldogs with 430 points and averaged 16.5 points a game. Andrew Davalos and Veldman were Becker’s top rebounders with 105 RPG and Radunz was second with 101.
Radunz also led the team with 10 blocks and Davalos and Dawson Brown were the top stealers with nine each. Veldman had the most assists (53) followed by Brown (51) and Blake Barthel (40),
Rocori (24-4) faced top-seeded Orono (23-5) in the Section 5AAA championship at 6 p.m. Thursday at Halenbeck Hall.
