skip navigation

Knights headed to State Class A Basketball Tournament

By Craig Olson, 03/16/24, 7:15AM CDT

Share

The West Central Area Knights (ranked #2 in Class A) defeated the Ada-Borup West Cougars (ranked #3 in Class A) for the Section 6A Championship in Fergus Falls on Friday night by the score of 60-56 to earn a trip to the state tournament.

The Knights built their biggest lead to 28-17 at one point in the first half led by Ben Bye who scored 18 first half points before the Cougars ended the half on an 8-2 run to cut it to 30-25 at the half. Ada-Borup took their only lead of the second half at 43-42 but the Knights responded with a Bye bucket and two Cam Anderson 3's to take a 50-45 lead they would never relinquish.

 

The Knights defense forced 21 Cougar turnovers. Knights Coach Kraig Hunter said, "Congratulations to Ada-Borup West on a great season. They are a great team. It is a great accomplishment for our kids to come out of our section who had 4 of the top 8 ranked teams in the state and 5 of the top 15. I thought our defense was stellar tonight. We did a good job disrupting their offense and held them to a season low 56 points.  Nas Dotts and Sam Hanson were the leaders in that effort but really it takes the whole team to follow the game plan in a defensive performance like that.  The guys were dialed in on D.  As we've said all year, basketball is a game of runs and especially with talented teams like Ada-Borup West, they are going to make some. Once again, our guys were very poised throughout and there was never any panic. We know we'll make our runs as well and we finished the game strong."

"I am so happy for this group of boys. They are so deserving and have such a strong team bond. And also for our fans and community. We have the best fans, the best student body and it's just a joy to see all of them so happy."

Bye finished with 20 points, Anderson 12, Bryce Kjesbo 9, Mitch Dewey 8, Sam Hanson 7, and Nas Dotts 4. Rebounding leaders were Kjesbo with 6, Marshall Dewey with 5 and Hanson with 4.  Cam Anderson completed a double double adding 10 assists to his 12 points and Dotts had 5 assists. Mitch Dewey and Dotts were the steal leaders with 3 each.

Scoring for the Cougars were Austin McCraven 15, Cameron Spaeth 13, Cadyn Dahl 12, Charlie Scholl 8, Mason Larson 6, and Lance Kritzberger 2.

Ada-Borup West finishes their season at 24-6. The Knights will take their 27-3 record to the Target Center on Thursday, March 21st with their time and opponent to be determined after seeding sometime on Saturday.