STMA Boys Basketball

            The Knights played a flat game Tuesday night at Rogers, losing 65-48 to the Royals and thereby creating a tie at the top of the conference, both teams sporting 9-2 records.  Friday night, March 2, the Knights play the 4-7 Monticello Magic at home, and Rogers takes on the 1-9 Cambridge-Isanti Bluejackets.  If both win, they tie for first place and Buffalo finishes third.  If both lose and Buffalo beats Cambridge Thursday night and 1-10 Becker on Friday night, the conference gets a three-way tie for championship honors.  And of course, if either STMA wins and Rogers loses, or vice versa, the winning team takes the championship by itself.

            Rogers hit the floor running early in the game, building a 32-19 lead in the first half.  Michael Wiese hit the floor hard midway through the first period, banging up his knee.  The injury frustrated him all evening, and the usual top scorer for the Knights scored only 7 points and was limited to 7 rebounds.  Michael Mooney tried to pick up the slack, driving the lane often only to be stopped by the inside height of Michael Schreiber and Josh Turnquist.  Mooney scored 8, and the Knights had only Max Babb in double figures at 15.  Herbert Tarpeh was neutralized by the 6’-9” Schreiber and the 6’-6” Turnquist, who only scored 12 and 7 points respectively but pulled down 14 boards between them.  The Royals out-boarded the Knights 38-25, a  problem the Knights have not had often this season.

            The Knights play at home with their fate clearly in their own hands Friday night.  A win over Monticello guarantees the team no less than a tie for first place, with the rest to be decided by Rogers.  The boys should be ready to play.  They defeated Monti 69-36 at the home of the Magic a month ago and need to finish out the season with a strong game to clinch the championship and prepare themselves for sectional play next week.