Late Putback Carries Bears Past Red Dragons In C2 Quarters
FREWSBURG — Freshman Brad Nelson scored on an athletic putback late in the fourth quarter and No. 4 Frewsburg survived a turnover on its final possession to edge No. 5 Maple Grove, 49-47, in Section VI Class C2 quarterfinal action Friday night.
“I’m really proud of the team. It’s a really good win for the program,” Frewsburg coach Tom Nelson said. “Maple Grove (10-11) is a solid team. Their record wasn’t as good but they played in a really tough league. It was a tough first-round matchup.”
Nelson’s basket gave the Bears (17-4) a 49-45 lead before freshman Pete Auer was fouled on a basket to pull the Red Dragons within a pair with 42 seconds left. Facing a differential of seven seconds between the shot clock and game clock, Maple Grove elected to not foul and the decision paid off when Frewsburg threw away a skip pass with 13.5 seconds left.
“We turned the ball over too much. We played really hard defense, boxed out well, rebounded hard. We’ve just got to do a better job of taking care of the ball,” Coach Nelson said. “They force you to play a little faster than you want to and we didn’t always execute, but we made plays when we had to.”
The Red Dragons then set up a play, but with less than five seconds remaining, coach Curt Fischer called a timeout when the ball got too close to the sideline. The ball eventually found Michel Padilla off the inbounds play, but his 3-pointer just missed at the buzzer sending the Bears into Tuesday’s 5:15 p.m. semifinal against No. 1 Randolph at Jamestown Community College.
“We had something drawn up, we just didn’t execute it,” Fischer said, before adding, “but we’ll take that look for sure.”
Frewsburg led early and Maple Grove grabbed a short lead late in the third quarter before the teams went back and forth in the final eight minutes.
Truman Purslow hit a 3-pointer to give the Red Dragons a 38-37 lead with 5:21 remaining before Quinn Conlan dove down the lane for a lay-in with 4:45 left to give the Bears a one-point lead. Maple Grove’s Zach Fischer and the Bears Cordell O’Brien then traded 3-pointers with under four minutes left before Fischer gave the lead back to the Red Dragons with 2:47 showing on the clock.
“He’s just such a steady player. He’s so explosive off the floor,” Coach Fischer said of O’Brien. “He keeps his head all the time. He finds creases and his first step is so quick it’s unbelievable.”
O’Brien and Maple Grove’s Carson Crist traded baskets before the Bears’ Caleb Caldwell hit a free throw to tie the game with 2:05 left. Conlan then picked up his sixth block of the game, which led to a Nyle Bird fast break with 1:40 remaining. Bird was fouled on the play and hit both free throws to give Frewsburg a two-point lead before Nelson’s putback made it a four-point game.
“I’m very proud of him, how he’s handled playing varsity as a freshman,” Coach Nelson said of his son. “He has a lot of composure and a lot of poise. That was a big bucket.”
Caldwell opened the game with a bucket before O’Brien scored 15 straight points for the Bears, who led 17-10 after eight minutes.
“He does it so routinely you hardly notice it,” Coach Nelson said of O’Brien. “He had a heck of a game.”
Frewsburg also led 26-17 at halftime before Padilla got going with 10 points in the third quarter as the Red Dragons made it 33-31 heading into the fourth quarter.
“We had to get the ball to Mitch with Dalton (DuBois) in trouble,” Coach Fischer said. “Mitch was so explosive. He did a great job for sure.”
O’Brien finished with 28 points and 10 rebounds while Nyle Bird handed out eight assists and grabbed six rebounds for the Bears.
“He’s kind of that piece of the puzzle you need,” Coach Nelson said of Bird. “He does a lot of things that don’t always show up on the stat sheet.”
Padilla led Maple Grove with 20 points and 10 rebounds.
“He’s a tough matchup man-to-man,” Coach Nelson said of Padilla. “Going into zone worked well to kind of limit his touches. He didn’t get the ball as much because they can’t isolate him to get him the ball.”
NOTES: Conlan grabbed 11 rebounds; Caldwell had 11 points and 10 rebounds; and Nelson pulled down six rebounds for Frewsburg, which turned the ball over 21 times. … Crist grabbed eight rebounds and Purslow blocked three shots for the Red Dragons. … Maple Grove was 6 for 13 from the foul line while Frewsburg was 12 of 17.
MAPLE GROVE (47)
Auer 3 1 7, Padilla 8 3 20, Fischer 4 0 9, Crist 2 2 6, Jones 0 0 0, Purslow 2 0 5, DuBois 0 0 0. Totals 19 6 47.
FREWSBURG (49)
Nelson 1 0 2, O’Brien 11 5 28, Bird 2 2 6, Caldwell 3 5 11, Marchincin 0 0 0, Conlan 1 0 2. Totals 18 12 49.
3-point goals — Padilla, Fischer, Purslow, O’Brien.
Maple Grove 10 7 14 16 — 47
Frewsburg 17 9 7 16 — 49
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