Tigers squeak past AC Knights

Ipswich outlasted Aberdeen Christian 33-31 in a boys' high school basketball showdown last Tuesday in Aberdeen. The defensive struggle was what often happens in a game between Lake Region Conference opponents and that was certainly the case that night.

Ipswich led 8-7 after a quarter and 18-13 at intermission. But AC came out of their locker room and put together an 8-6 third-quarter lead to tighten things up a bit. The Knights also edged the Tigers 10-9 in the third stanza to keep things even closer.

Ipswich's biggest lead was by eight points and Aberdeen Christian's highest lead was only three points. The score was tied four times and the lead changed hands four times as well.

The winning possession, according to coach Tyler Severson, was: "We called a timeout with about 15 seconds left, and drew up an isolation look for Ty (Kadlec). The look wasn't there and we attacked the rim with Taylor (Thorson), who passed to Carter (Gohl). Carter drove and passed back to Taylor, who hit about a 12-foot jumper with 1.5 seconds left."

Ipswich would be led by Kadlec's game-high 11 points and that included one trey. Josh McQuarie added seven points with Ipswich's remaining trey. And Thorson chipped in with six points, followed by Eric Severson with five points and Matt Hettich and Gohl with two points apiece.

The Tigers were able to connect on 11 of 45 floor-shot attempts and that included that pair of treys. But the team fared somewhat better at the free throw line, going 9-13 there.

The hosts were 10-48 from the floor with a lone trey and finished 10-15 at the line. They had two double-figure scorers that night, Brent Ekanger and Malek Wieker with 10 points each.

The Knights were able to enjoy a 44-32 rebounding edge, though, despite four each from Thorson and Kadlec. But Ipswich committed 13 turnovers; AC, 20. McQuarie and Kadlec each claimed four steals and Trevor Heinz the other.

That victory improved the Tigers to 4-1 on the season and 2-1 in league play. They were next scheduled to play Wolsey-Wessington following the IHS varsity girls versus WW in a Big Bo Classic appearance on Dec. 30 at Wolsey. (The girls play at 2 p.m. that day, then the boys.) The Tiger boys are to then return to conference action on January 5 at Northwestern.