The Becker Bulldog boys basketball team saw its season come to an end last Friday with a loss to the Princeton Tigers, 67-58, despite playing one of the team’s better games in the last two months.

The Bulldogs gave the top-seeded Tigers fits all night, with Becker trailing just 27-25 at halftime.

Becker used great defensive pressure on the perimeter to keep the game close and nearly pull off the upset.

“I was proud of our effort on the defensive end,” Coach Josh Ihrke said.  “We held Princeton to shooting just 1-for-21 from the three point line in the game. We executed our game plan at a high level.”

Offensively, Mitchell Soltau continued to play at a high level, scoring 15 points and being a beast on the boards with 12 rebounds. 

“We played together and with patience on the offensive end,” Ihrke said.  “This allowed us to stay in the game.”

The Bulldogs did commit 22 turnovers to the Tigers’ 12 and rebounding was also a difficulty against the much taller Tigers.

“We just gave up too many offensive rebounds to Princeton to close the game and that was the difference maker,” Ihrke said.  “It was a great team effort and a great way to close out the season.”

Becker scoring: Ryan Bengtson 4, Alex Weiss 6, Zach Bengtson 2, Kyle Vogl 12, Sawyer Brown 9, Nathan Weiss 3, Josh Groskreutz 7, Mitchell Soltau 15 (12 rebounds).