Last Friday, the Bulldogs hosted the Monticello Magic for a Senior night matchup and came away with a 73-61 win. The victory put Becker into second place in the Mississippi 8 Conference with two games remaining in the season.

Offensively, it was a challenging game at times for both teams, but Becker did enough in the second half to extend their slim, 30-29, halftime lead for the victory.

“It was fun to see the team buy in to execute a defensive game plan to win a tough conference game,” Coach Josh Ihrke said. “It took all of the guys to buy in.”

After an even first half of the game, Brady Paumen hit a pair of shots to open the second half on a high note for Becker, but that was followed by a pair of Bulldog turnovers.

Next, Seavert hit a long three, followed by an Alex Weiss basket and Becker had a lead. However, on the next four possessions Becker committed another two turnovers and missed a pair of shots.

Another Becker turnover led to a Magic layup and Monti’s first lead of the second half, 40-39 with 12:57 remaining in the game. After the Magic hit another shot, Bulldog Hayden Harmoning nailed a long three-pointer from the deep left baseline to tie it up at 42.

It was back and forth from that point until there was 7:23 left in the game, when Becker built a seven point lead on five straight points from Seavert.

Monticello wouldn’t go away, however, as they hit a big shot to pull within 62-59 with two minutes left in the game.  

Seavert then took over the game, as the Senior hit a shot for Becker before Monti answered again, this time putting on the full court pressure. Seavert was fouled on the inbounds pass, earning him a shot at the bonus. Then, the Monti player picked up a technical foul for protesting the call, giving Seavert four shots from the free throw line. He hit the front end of the 1-and-1 and then hit the next three free throws to give Becker a 71-61 lead with under a minute to play.

“Eric Seavert and Brady Paumen had a great game on both ends of the floor and controlling the boards,” Ihrke said.

Overall, Becker out-rebounded the Magic 40-30 for the game.

With the win, Becker headed into its final week of regular season action with a pair of road contest, March 3 at St. Francis and March 4 at Big Lake (re-scheduled from inclement weather postponement last week).  From there, it will be sectional tournament time.

“I am excited to see the growth of the team and where this can lead us as we approach the section tournament next week,” Ihrke said.

Becker scoring: Weiss, nine; Nick Berglund, four; Julias Hendricks, seven (five assists); Ryan Bengtson, two; Harmoning, seven (four assists); Seavert, 23 (10 rebounds); Paumen, 17 (11 rebounds); Carter Callahan, four.