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North Union hoopsters dunk North Iowa

ARMSTRONG — The Warriors had to fight.

The North Union Warriors beat the North Iowa Bison 57-50 in a Top of Iowa Conference boys basketball rivalry clash Friday night in Armstrong.

Strong first-half shooting put the Warriors out front. The team shot 12 of 23 from the field and 5-for-11 from behind the 3-point arc in the first two quarters.

Elliott Hagebock and Dylan Delperdang led the way for the Warriors in the first half with eight points apiece. Hagebock’s points came on four shots and Delperdang’s resulted from a 3, a traditional 3-point play and a mid-range jumper.

The Warriors had a 27-21 lead with under two minutes before the halftime break when Gage Madden looked through a full-court press and spotted Hagebock wide open on the Bison’s side of the court. Madden threw the ball down to the open Hagebock, who threw down a two-handed slam to get the crowded gym fired up with a minute left before the half.

North Iowa’s Kevin Hassebroek answered with a 3 off an assist from Hunter Meinders, but a foul under the North Union basketball gave the Warriors an inbounds try with a second left.

Noah Morphew threw a high inbounds pass and Hagebock jumped and tipped it into the basket from 10 feet away as the buzzer sounded to send the Warriors into the break with a seven-point lead.

North Union head coach Alex Fisher said he was happy with the energy his team started the game with.

“It was a lot of energy,” Fisher said. “We knew we needed it in a big rivalry game for us. They got us over in Buffalo Center, so the kids were fired up for it. We won a lot of loose balls and the rebounding game is kind of what won it for us. Job well done on the energy and the intangible stuff.”

Avery Krantz came out of the break hot for the Warriors, making his first two shots, both off assists from Brendan Anderson — two of Anderson’s game-leading nine assists on the night.

The Bison fought back in the third quarter to bring the Warriors’ lead down to three on the strength of five points each from Dominyk Price and Cedric Frerichs.

After Hassebroek made a 3 off a Price assist, the North Union lead was down to 37-36, but Pierce hit the final shot of the quarter to bring the lead back to three four the Warriors.

Fisher said his team needed to make adjustments as the game got close in the third quarter.

“We knew the Price kid was their best scorer, so we held him to five points, which is good,” Fisher said. “He’s their offensive spark plug, if he gets going, they’re a dangerous team. We made some adjustments about what to do with him and we switched our defense around a bit. For the most part I was happy with the adjustments we made and how we adapted to how the game was going.”

Cedric fought to bring the Bison back in the final quarter, putting up nine of his game-high 26 points, but the effort wasn’t enough as the rest of his team shot 2-for-13 from the field in the segment.

Hagebock and Pierce each scored five points in the final quarter to keep the Warriors ahead. Down the stretch, Pierce and Morphew made their four combined free throw attempts to maintain the Warrior lead.

The win marks the Warriors’ second on the season and first in front of a home crowd. Fisher said the Warriors held on because they did the little things well.

“We’ve been talking a lot recently about the little things in the game,” Fisher said. “The boxing out, the ball fakes, driving with both our right hand and our left hand and I thought tonight that was big. We did the little things better and we got our second win, our first home win and the guys were ecstatic.

“After the game the message was, ‘Be happy, but not satisfied,’ we’ve got a long way to go and we’re gonna keep working to have a better second half than our first half.”

Hagebock led the Warriors with 15 points and nine rebounds, while Pierce had 13 points. Fisher said Hagebock and Pierce were key players in the victory.

North Union (2-9) travels to Forest City on Tuesday. North Iowa (2-10) plays at Central Springs on Monday.

No. Iowa 9 15 12 14–50

No. Union 11 20 8 18–57

North Iowa (50)

Hassebroek 3-8 0-0 7, Frerichs 10-21 2-3 26, Meinders 2-7 0-0 5, Price 2-13 0-0 5, Sabin 2-4 0-0 5, Murray 1-2 0-0 2, Hobbs 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 20-57 2-3 50.

North Union (57)

Hagebock 7-12 1-7 15, Pierce 4-9 2-2 13, Morphew 2-9 3-4 8, Delperdang 3-3 1-1 8, Krantz 3-4 0-2 6, Anderson 2-5 0-0 5, Hargrove 1-2 0-0 2, Madden 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 22-45 7-16 57.

3-pointers: North Iowa 8-30 (Frerichs 4-11); North Union 6-16 (Pierce 3-5). Fouled Out: None. Rebounds: North Iowa 20 (Meinders 5, Murray 5, Hassebroek 4); North Union 25 (Hagebock 8, Morphew 7). Assists: North Iowa 16 (Murray 7, Meinders 6); North Union 15 (Anderson 9). Steals: North Iowa 7; North Union 12 (Morphew 4, Hagebock 3).

Fairmont 67, Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial 44 — Junior post player Wyatt Frank collected game-highs of 24 points and seven rebounds to engineer the Cardinals’ 23-point non-league triumph over the Knights on Friday night in Lake Crystal.

Zach Jorgensen garnered six rebounds, while Dustin Schultz and Nick Eversman each pulled down four caroms apiece to help Frank pace the Cardinals’ 34-20 edge on the boards.

Jack Hested scored 12 points for Fairmont, while Schultz netted eight points and distributed five assists. Jorgensen contributed six points and five steals to the winning performance, while Eversman tallied six points, distributed five assists and pocketed three steals to go with his four-rebound effort.

Fairmont connected on 28 of 62 field goals overall, including 6 of 16 from behind the 3-point arc, and made 5 of 7 free throws on the game.

The Cardinals built a 33-21 halftime advantage and never trailed.

Fairmont (5-6) travels to Marshall on Tuesday night.

Jackson Utermarck and Jackson Francis each scored eight points apiece to guide Fairmont to a 45-27 win over LCWM during B-squad action Friday night.

Jacob Crissinger and Thomas Klanderud contributed six points apiece for the Cardinals.

David Maakestad tallied 17 points to help Fairmont defeat LCWM, 52-42, during C-squad action Friday.

Dustin Olson contributed 14 points to the Cardinals’ winning ways, while Gavin Rodning and Gavin Junkermeier supplied eight points each.

St. James Area 75, Blue Earth Area 61 — Kobe Mohwinkel connected for four first-half 3-pointers to help pace his game-high 27-point performance to steer the Saints to a 14-point Big South Conference win over the Bucs on Friday night in Blue Earth.

Parker Jones collected 22 points for St. James Area, while teammate Derrick Halvorson contributed 13 points to the win.

Grant Strukel scored 13 points and grabbed four rebounds to top the Bucs, while Cameron Anderson produced solid all-around numbers of 12 points, seven rebounds, four assists and three steals.

Austin Thielfoldt scored 12 points for BEA, Carter Bell supplied 10 points and three assists, Caelan Sanders netted eight points and Braden Gudahl pulled down six rebounds.

Blue Earth Area (6-4, 2-2 Big South) travels to St. Peter on Monday night. St. James Area (10-1) hits the road to Windom Area on Tuesday night.

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