The Becker Bulldog boys basketball team put together an impressive playoff run, but ran into state ranked Princeton in last Friday’s Section 5AAA final, losing to the Tigers, 77-67.

The first 12 minutes of the game were even, as the teams were tied at 22 with about six minutes left in the first half before the Tigers went on their first run to build a comfortable halftime lead, 42-30.

However, Becker still had some fight left and the Bulldogs came back to outscore the Tigers in the second half, 37-35.  

With 4:21 left in the game, Princeton led 67-56 before the Bulldogs put together a furious rally.  Princeton looked to be surviving the onslaught, but then the Bulldogs gave the Tigers a real scare, cutting the lead to just six points, trailing 73-67 with just 1:24 left in the game.  But those would be Becker’s last points, as Princeton survived to qualify for the state tournament.

For the game, the Tigers hit just three of 19 shots from three point range, while the Bulldogs hit seven in the same number of attempts.

The big advantage for Princeton came in the rebounding department, where the Tigers had 44 and Becker had 27. This led to a 22-13 advantage in second chance points for the #1 seed Tigers. 

Both teams took care of the ball well, with Becker committing 12 turnovers to Princeton’s 11.

With the loss, Becker finished its season with a record of 17-11, while the Tigers improved to 27-1 overall and qualified for the state tournament.

Princeton went on to win their opening game in the state tournament, 73-63 over Austin.

For the season, Eric Seavert led the Bulldogs with a 17.6 point scoring average, while Brady Paumen averaged 14.5 per game. Julias Hendricks was the third Bulldog to average double figures at 10.4 per game.

Becker scoring versus Princeton: Alex Weiss, nine (six rebounds); Nick Berglund, five; Hendricks, 15; Hayden Harmoning, five; Seavert, seven (eight assists); Paumen, 21 (seven rebounds); Carter Callahan, five.