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West Central Area and Fertile-Beltrami played an instant classic in the Class A State Semifinals on Friday at Williams Arena with the Falcons pulling out a triple overtime thriller, 84-75. A banked-in Mitchell Dewey 3-pointer at the end of regulation put the game into OT, tied 51-51. Masen Nowacki of Fertile-Beltrami hit a 3 with 4.4 seconds left in the first overtime to even the score at 60-60 and force a second overtime period. It was 67-67 at the end of two overtimes and the Falcons were able to strike early in the third OT, building a quick six point lead and adding to it at the free throw line, where they finished 18-for-21 on the day, 14-17 in the overtime periods.
“Extremely proud of our guys,” said WCA Head Coach Kraig Hunter. “They played as hard as they could for 48 minutes. We tip our hats to Fertile-Beltrami. Both teams hit tons of clutch shots. They hit 12-of-26 3’s and 18-of-21 free throws. Have to congratulate them.”
The Falcons win was more impressive when you consider they lost their leading scorer, Caiden Swenby with five fouls late in the second half. Swenby scored 19 points, pulled down 13 rebounds and dished out 5 assists in just over 28 minutes on the floor. Four other Falcons were in double figures, including Preston Hanson with a game high 23. He added 7 rebounds, 2 steals and 2 blocked shots. Caleb Stoltman (13 points, 8 assists, 6 rebounds), Derek Sorenson (13 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists) and Nowacki (12 points, 3 rebound, 2 assists, 2 steals) were also in double digits.
The Falcons won the rebounding battle, 41-30, but after shooting 52% in the first half they finished at 46% for the game, making 8-of-13 field goal attempts in the overtime periods. They also had 21 turnovers.
West Central Area improved from 32% shooting in the first half to 46% for the game, including 66.7% in the second half on 14-of-21 shooting, Ben Bye led the Knights with 23 points, 8 rebounds, 2 blocked shots, 2 assists and 2 steals. Bryce Kjesbo (points, 4 rebounds, 2 steals), Cam Anderson (16 points, 10 assists, 5 rebounds) and Mitchell Dewey (11 points, 34 rebounds) all reached double figures.
West Central Area (28-4) will play for third place in Class A at 10:00am Saturday at Concordia University in St. Paul. Their opponent will be Nevis.
Fertile-Beltrami (27-6) will face top-seeded Cherry (30-2) for the Class A championship at 11:00am Saturday at Williams Arena.