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The top-seeded Pelican Rapids Vikings have advanced to the Section 8AA semifinals with a 57-45 victory over Perham on Saturday night. The Vikings will now face #5 seed, East Grand Forks, a 78-72 overtime winner over Barnesville in their quarterfinal round contest. Pelican Rapids led 30-18 at the half and each team scored 27 second half points in the game. The Vikings improve to 22-5 with the win and Perham ends their season with a final record of 10-17.
Charlie Larson scored 19 points and Timmy Guler also had 19 points and snagged 6 rebounds to lead the way for Pelican Rapids. Jack Welch had a team high 7 rebounds in the game. The Vikings made 12-of-19 free throws and took excellent care of the basketball as they had only 6 turnovers.
"It was a nice win for us tonight to open postseason play," acknowledged Pelican Rapids Head Coach John Gullingsrud. "With the bye we received in the first round, we were hoping to come out with good energy and not look rusty after a week of practice, and that’s what our guys did as we jumped out to a 9-0 lead. We were able to maintain the lead for the entirety of the game as our guys really worked hard on the defensive end to not give them easy looks at the basket."
Ashton Detloff led Perham with 12 points and 7 rebounds.
In the other quarterfinal round games, #2 seed, Park Rapids Area, defeated Hawley, 67-57 and Wadena-Deer Creek eliminated defending section champion Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton, 82-71.
The semifinal round games will be played on Wednesday, March 13 at Concordia College in Moorhead with Pelican Rapids facing East Grand Forks at 6:00pm and Wadena-Deer Creek going up against Park Rapids Area at 7:45pm.