The Zimmerman Thunder boys basketball team earned the No. 3 seed in the Section 5AAA tournament after finishing the regular season 18-8. The Becker Bulldogs earned the #6 seed after going 15-11.
No. 3 beat No. 6, 74-52 to advance in section play.
In their first game in the section tournament Tuesday in Zimmerman, the Bulldogs were hoping to jump all over the Thunder and prove they had the mettle to compete on Zimmerman’s home court. That well-planned idea hit the skids right from the opening tip-off when Zimmerman exploded to a 26-9 lead in front of their hometown fans.
To Becker’s credit, they didn’t give up and went on a little bit of a run to end the first half, scoring nine points to Zimmerman’s two in the waning minutes. Zimmerman found themselves leading 28-18 at the intermission, but a little shell-shocked at their loss of composure.
Zimmerman’s Head Coach, Nathan Christensen, knew his boys slacked off a little towards the end of the first 18 minutes, so he instructed his players at halftime to “don’t settle and don’t let them get back in the game.”
Becker, on the other hand, entered the lockerroom feeling better about themselves after their mini-run, but still had a lot to do to take a bite out of the Thunder and their home court advantage.
The Thunder took heed to their coaches’ instruction and dominated the second half. They scored 46 points to Becker’s 34 and coasted to the win to eliminate the Bulldogs from playoff contention. The Thunder were led by 23 points from Chandler Wellman and 16 points from Thunder Heyer. Jake Pensinger added 12.
The Bulldogs got almost half their scoring from senior guard Hunter McCalla, who dropped 24 points. The Bulldogs were hurt by the fact their junior shooting guard, Lucas Dertinger, was unable to play.
McCalla was seven-of-nine at the free throw stripe, and made four two-pointers and three, three-pointers.
Zimmerman moved on to play the #2-seeded seed Rocori Spartans Saturday, Becker was sent home after a promising season.
Becker scoring: McCalla 24, Conzemius 8, Tyler Lindquist 8, Ryan Good 6, Justin Kringler 4 and Dawson Thom 2.
Zimmerman scoring: Wellman 23, Heyer 16, Pensinger 12, Carter McEachem 9, Dylan Martin 8, Brian Rajchel 2, Andrew Thompson 2 and Dylan Olerich 2.
The Bulldogs were up-and-down all season long and only had two, three-game winning streaks. They split two games with the Thunder in the regular season, winning 85-76 in mid-December at home, then losing in February, 60-53.
Becker’s wins came against Princeton, Milaca (twice), Detroit Lakes, Sauk Rapids-Rice, Dassel-Cokato, Albany (twice), Foley (twice), Mora (twice), Little Falls and Sartell-St. Stephen.
Their losses were to St. Cloud Apollo, Big Lake, Waconia, Delano, Little Falls, Willmar, Rocori, St. Cloud Cathedral (twice), Zimmerman (twice) and Monticello.
Becker will lose eight seniors to graduation for next year (Hunter McCalla, CJ Howard, Evan Epperly, Tyler Lindquist, Tyler Wasserbauer, Ryan Good, Dawson Thom and Jack Conzemius), so Coach Josh Ihrke and his staff will look to rely on the experience of their established juniors improving while developing some of their younger potential starters.
