Tigers stop Trojans in Region opener

Ipswich had begun its 2021 Region 2B boys' high school basketball campaign with a narrow 54-48 win over the Faulkton Area Trojans last Tuesday in the Tiger Den. (Ipswich entered the tourney as the overall third seed and Faulkton was the number six seed.)

The visitors certainly made things quite interesting in the final quarter. They did that with a huge trey that evened the score at 48 apiece. But that would prove to be their final scoring damage in the closing minute or so. That's because Eric Severson scored from the paint, followed by four accurate Ty Kadlec free throws without a miss.

Ipswich had led 18-12 after a quarter and added a 9-6 second-quarter scoring edge for a 27-18 halftime lead. A little earlier in that stanza Ipswich had posted its largest lead of the game at 12 points (27-15) after a Josh McQuarie trey. But the visitors certainly hung around with a 13-9 third-quarter edge of their own, even though McQuarie would score five straight points to close out that quarter with a basket and then another basket plus free throw, to complete an and-one opportunity! It put Ipswich up 36-31 with a quarter to play. And the Tigers had certainly needed that! That's because Faulkton had briefly drawn even at 31-31 thanks to an offensive rebound put-back. (Altogether there were three ties that night and one lead change.)

Ipswich received some welcomed balanced scoring, led by McQuarie and Severson with 16 points apiece. (McQuarie included a trey.) Next was Taylor Thorson also in double-figure scoring territory with 13 points that also included a trey. Kadlec would end up with seven points, thanks to his team's remaining trey and those late free throws. Matt Hettich completed the ledger with two points.

Faulkton, meanwhile, landed six players into its scorebook , led by the game's high scorer Bennett Cassens with 19 points. Next was Nick Schlechter with 10 points, while Hunter Niederbaumer followed with eight points.

Ipswich shot 21-44 from the floor, not bad at all and that included the trio of treys. The Tigers were 9-12 in free throw attempts. Meanwhile, Faulkton ended up 17-57 in total floor-shot tries, featuring five treys and went 9-15 in free throws.

Ipswich compiled a 35-33 rebounding edge, led by McQuarie and Kadlec with nine retrieves apiece. Niederbaumer led Faulkton with nine rebounds, as well. Ipswich sustained 13 turnovers; Faulkton, eight. The Tigers were able to come away with four steals, though, led by McQuarie with two thefts.