Knights successful MNAC Tourney ends with victory over Coyotes
NORTH PLATTE - In many ways, the 2021 MNAC tournament was a success for the Sandhills-Thedford boys basketball team. They knocked off Hyannis who beat them before the MNAC tourney, battled tough against Mullen, and finished it off with a 46-39 win over Anselmo-Merna in the third-place game at North Platte Community College on Jan. 29.
Against the Coyotes, the Knights did a good job of running their offense in the first half. They were able to find plenty of scoring opportunities for Dane Porkorny and Andrew Furrow down low.
“Us being post players, that’s kind of the key to our offense,” Pokorny said. “If our wings can rotate and move the ball around and if we get open we should be the leading scorers.”
Scoring on a layup inside early in the contest was Pokorny for the Knights. The next time down the court, Wyat Lambertson made a layup while being fouled for the Coyotes. After missing the free-throw A-M trailed 4-2.
Pokorny kept his strong first quarter going with a layup despite contact. At the free-throw line, he made his attempt, giving S-T a 9-4 edge.
Just before the buzzer could go off in the first, Ahlstrom made a jump shot that put the Knights ahead 16-5.
Furrow for S-T and Lambertson for the Coyotes traded jumpers to start the second quarter of action. A basket by Furrow again, this time in the corner, put the Knights up 22-7.
S-T continued to build on their lead with back to back baskets by Drew McIntosh and Connor Cooksley.
After being outscored 9-2 to begin the second, Lambertson battled for a rebound underneath and made a layup. Dalton Duryea’s basket for A-M made the score 29-13.
The tough first half for the Coyotes continued when they were called for a foul on Furrow as the clock hit zero. With everybody off the court, Furrow made one of two freethrows and the Knights took a 31-15 lead into the locker room.
“We came out a little slow and shots were not falling,” A-M Coach Brent Myers said. “We had a little bit of trouble with their size obviously but adjusted and made a good run in the second half.”
Out of halftime, A-M found a spark on offense with a jumper from Kade Safranek and a layup by Joel Finney. Tyson Stengel’s basket inside broke the Coyote scoring streak and increased the S-T lead to 33-19.
Trailing by sixteen late in the third, A-M was given a spark with an impossible save by Lambertson in the corner that resulted in an easy layup for the Coyotes. Heading to the final frame the Knights led 40-26.
A-M knew they had to work quickly to start the quarter to get back into the game.
That is exactly what they did with back to back layups inside by Lambertson and Finney. That was followed up by Garrett Porter and Duryea making shots and cutting the Coyotes deficit to 40-34.
After a timeout by S-T Coach Andrew Christen, the Knights were able to respond and close out the game with a free-throw by Stengel and a layup by Matthew Dailey.
The game had a similar narrative to the two teams matchup back on Jan. 14 in Dunning. In the end, it was a similar result as S-T found a way to hold on and win.
“Everybody always says it’s harder to beat a team twice,” Pokorny said. “I have been in games where we have won and then lost to the same team. Plus that’s kinda a rival for us which made it a little sweeter.”
Overall, the Knights finished 2-1 in the MNAC Tournament this season.
The team was proud of their effort and was particularly impressed with their ability to keep up with D2 No. 4 Mullen in the semifinals.
“That type of game we had the other night is encouraging for our team,” Furrow said. “It pushes us and shows us how much better we can be and that we can compete with the top teams in our conference.”
Pokorny for S-T led all scorers with 20 points and Lambertson had 12 points for A-M.
Both teams are back in action on Feb. 4. The Coyotes are at home vs Twin Loup and the Knights travel to Mullen for a rematch of the MNAC semifinal.