Baker's 22 powers NRHEG past Breckenridge

St. Paul – After Wednesday night’s heartbreaking overtime loss to second-seeded St. Cloud Cathedral, New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva head coach Pat Churchill said that he fully expected his team to come out ready to play against Breckenridge in the consolation semifinals Thursday.
They did just that.
Led by Oakley Baker’s game-high 22 points, the Panthers topped the Cowboys 65-47 in the Class AA consolation semifinal to cement a spot in the consolation final at Concordia Univeristy-St. Paul. 
“We came out defensively and I thought we did a really job making things tough for them,” commented Churchill. “Offensively, we were clicking a little bit; got things going right from the beginning and we were able to play with a lead all night.”
NRHEG led from the opening tip and never looked back. In fact, there was a lone tie at 2-2 in the contest just a minute into the first half, after Benji Lundberg's layup gave the Panthers a 4-2 lead, that seemingly changed the game. That isn’t to say that there weren’t a few struggles for the Panthers. Both teams struggled with happy feet as they appeared to try and push the tempo against one another resulting in a total of 21 turnovers and 13 fouls between the two teams. For the game, the two teams combined for 28 fouls (NR 12, B 16) and 31 turnovers. Churchill noted that the high numbers were to be expected with Breckenridge’s pace.
“It’s easy to get caught up in the way they want to play, so I tend to have to tell the kids to slow down, we’ll get a shot, but the kids were excited and made some plays tonight,” he added. 
With a healthy dose of Baker, NRHEG jumped out to a 17- 4 lead as the Cowboys struggled to generate any offensive rhythm early. The ‘Big 3’ for the Panthers was working in the first half, scoring nearly half of the team’s 30 points at the half. Baker led all scorers at the half with 10 points.
Despite only scoring four points in 26 minutes of play, senior Tyler Raimann continues his strong surge down low in the postseason. He registered three blocks and grabbed seven defensive rebounds, helping to lead the team to a demoralizing 26 defensive rebounds for a total of 31. The Cowboys were just as dominant on the defensive boards, grabbing 16 to help reach a total of 28.
“When he’s one the floor, he makes us that much better of a team,” commented Churchill.
The Cowboys managed to generate a 13-2 run in large to the play of Noah Christenson, scoring seven of his nine points during the span. Christensen would be the offensive bright spot for the Cowboys, scoring a team-high 15 points and grabbing eight rebounds.
Baker picked up where he left off before the half, scoring seven of the Panthers 15 points to start the second half. The Panthers outscored Breckenridge 33-28 in the second half. Aside from the defensive rebounds, NRHEG was effective from the charity stripe, shooting 81.3 percent. To add insult to injury for the Cowboys, NRHEG held them scoreless for the final two minutes of the contest.
The Panthers will play Lake City for the Class AA consolation championship.