The Chomper: February 2013

Friday, February 22, 2013

Mathletes

Nick Wilson and Tayler Wilson working hard during the team event

Nels Wicklund with his individual award

The Gator Mathletes who made the trek to Bemidji

There is no hiding the fact the BGMR Gator Boy’s Basketball team has had their trouble winning close games this year. The fact that the Gators were 0-8 in games decided by 6 points or less going into Saturday night’s game against Warroad was starting to ride on the Gator program a bit. Saturday’s game moved the Gators record to 0-9 in games decided by 6 points or less as the Gators dropped a bewildering, astonishing, and controversial, 52-49 decision to the Warriors.

Like many Saturday games the Gators and Warriors were sluggish out of the gate. In the first half neither team could find an offensive rhythm and both teams were struggling shooting the ball. The Warriors would however heat up a bit and take a 27-18 halftime lead.

With action continuing to be sluggish much of the second half the Gators started showing some life with about 8 minutes to go. Coming back from as many as 11 points down the Gators and Warriors would trade baskets and the lead multiple times in the last 2 minutes. BGMR scored a basket to take a 1 point lead with just over 25 seconds to go. This is when things started to get rather interesting as the game would end amidst some controversy. The Gators defended the Warriors well and ended up securing what appeared to be a strong rebound and potential foul against the Warriors. It was determined that there was a jump ball rather than a foul. With the Gators owning the possession arrow BGMR was setting up to inbound the ball. Knowing the Warriors were going to have to foul the Gators made a substitution to get one of their better foul shooters in the game. It was then determined by the officials and official score keeper that the substitute did not legally report and BGMR was assessed a two shot technical foul. As this was happening and before the ball was inbounded the Gator coaching staff tried calling a timeout to rectify the illegal substitution problem. Much to the chagrin of the Gator coaching staff they were told by the officials that the Gator could take a timeout but the technical would stand. Much to the Warriors credit they stepped up and made two free throws to put them up by 1. Warroad had possession of the ball and the Gators were forced to foul. The Warriors again made both free throws and BGMR’s desperation 3 pointer fell short and ended the hard fought and heart breaking game.

Nick Rodriguez was the only Gator to land in double figures. Rodriguez dumped in 14 points. Tanner Creviston and Aaron Dostal had solid offensive games with 9 points each. Dostal also managed to grab 7 rebounds.

After the game Gator Assistant Coach Brad Dahl felt that the player who entered the game was never illegal because the ball was never put in play. Much to Coach Dahl’s credit and after reviewing the rule book the Gator coaching staff found the following: Rule 3 Section 3 Article 3 . . . “A substitute becomes a player when he/she legally enters the court. If entry is not legal, the substitute becomes a player when the ball becomes live.” With this interpretation the Gators probably should have been allowed their timeout and been given the chance to redo the sub. However, after discussing the call via email with the officials of the game it should be pointed out that their call WAS CORRECT as they referenced Rule 10.2.1 . . . “Substitute A1 enters the court without reporting to the scorer. The infraction is discovered before the ball becomes live a technical foul is charged.” As a person can see the basketball rule book can take on more interpretations than the Bible, Koran, and Torah.

When all was said and done the Gators do not have an excuse for going 0-3 from the foul line down the stretch with all 3 being the front end of bonus shots and 5 for 13 from the charity stripe for the game.

Saturday night’s contest is a great learning experience for the Gator team and Gator Nation that things may not always go the way we like and overcoming adversity is one of the strongest lessons that can be learned in high school athletics.

BGMR will need to put the latest setback in the review mirror. BGMR will take a couple days off before returning to practice on Tuesday. BGMR will travel to Grygla on Friday to take on the ever improving Charger team and will take on the running Warriors from Red Lake on Saturday. Saturdays game will be on the campus of NCTC as part of the Super Saturday Basketball Day. Things are winding down and the Gators are gearing up for tournament time. It should be an outstanding tournament as several teams are hoping to hit their stride at the right time.

Jake Jenson had a solid day for the Gators and went 2-0 on the day.

Collin Berard had a solid pin for the Gators against the M-W Cougars.

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

GATORS COME UP SHORT AGAINST PONIES

By: Coach Christian

The BGMR Gators Boy’s Basketball team traveled to Warren on Thursday night to take on the Warren-Alvarado-Oslo Ponies. Despite a valiant effort by the Gator boys the Ponies were able to secure the home court win with a 54-47 victory.

Like past games between these two teams, it was a back and forth affair as the teams went into halftime tied at 28. The second half was much the same as both teams would trade baskets. The Gators however were hit with the injury bug as two starters went out with what appears to be minor injuries. The Ponies were able to take advantage of the Gator youth as a tie game with just over 2 minutes ended with the Ponies closing out the game on an 8 to 1 run to take home the seven point margin of victory.

BGMR managed to land only one individual in double figures. Tanner Creviston led the Gators with 10 points. After sitting out the past couple games with an injury Nick Rodriguez made his return to the lineup and scored 9 points. Aaron Dostal also contributed 8 points.

The Gators will continue their road play when they travel to Warroad on Saturday. The game Saturday was rescheduled from earlier in the year. The Gators will again be looking for revenge as the Warriors beat the Gators just over a week ago. The Gator boys continue to show great effort despite suffering some tough losses. This should bode well for the Gators as tournament time is just around the corner.

GATORS UPEND RAMS

By: Coach Christian

Looking to avenge an early season loss to the Roseau Rams, the BGMR Gators Boy’s Basketball Team road a strong second half to upend the Roseau Rams 68-46.

Roseau and BGMR went back and forth in the first half with the Gators taking a 28-27 halftime lead. Coming out of halftime the Gators were on a mission and were able to stifle the Ram offense to bring home the 22 point margin of victory. Although all Gators contributed defensively, none was more impressive than sophomore Darius Watson who blanketed Ram’s high scoring guard Jacob Eaton. Eaton, who had 12 points at halftime, was shut down by Watson and his buddies and scored only 5 second half points.

Offensively the Gators were more efficient than what they have been. Aaron Dostal, after struggling offensively against the Northern Freeze, bounced back with a tremendous 19 point and 11 rebound performance. Jacquan Rhen, who was seeing his first action in 2 games, tallied 16 points. Although no other Gator got into double figures scoring there was tremendous balance. Jacob Randall continued his strong play with 9 points. Tanner Creviston had 7 and Alex Rhen and Tyler Bentow each had 6.

All in all it was a strong team performance by the Gators. They will need to build on this as they have one day of practice before traveling to Warren to take on the WAO Ponies. The Ponies are having an outstanding season and the Gators will again look to avenge an earlier 1 point overtime loss to the Ponies.

The season is winding down in a hurry and there isn’t much time until the march for the state tournament begins. Hopefully Gator Nation will be in full force as Section 8A looks to be up for grabs.

Gators Take a Victory from Prowlers

By: Coach Bergeron

On Thursday, February, 7^th the Gator wrestling team traveled to TRF for the final regular season dual of the year. The Gators were determined to go into team sections on a high note and that is just what they did as they pulled away from a solid Prowler wrestling team and took home the victory 46-33.

The Gator knew they needed to get out to a fast start and that is exactly what they did as Isaak Isane got the bench to their feet with a solid pin over Josh Bernier at the 1:31 mark of the first period. The Gators continued to feed off this energy as Wyatt Becker avenged an earlier season loss to Stephen Holecek and took home the major dec. with a 14-6 victory to give the Gators and early 10-0 lead. Devin Dostal at 120 took the mat and was in a battle with Tae Malone, Dostal was ahead 9-2 when Tae slammed Dostal for a penalty point. Dostal was not able to continue so Dostal won by disqualification by rule to give the Gators a 16-0 lead. Nick Kaml followed with an impressive match as he dominated the action with Dre Malone and pinned Malone at the 4:21 mark to give the Gators a dominating 22-0 lead.

The Prowlers would get on the board when a solid Noah Bernier would record a fall over Trevor Undeberg. At 138 Brandon Waage would do battle with a familiar foe in Austin Hjelle. This proved to be a match- up of two state caliber wrestlers as Hjelle held on in the final seconds to win a close 2-1 match. This would close the match score to 22-9 in favor of the Gators.

The Gators would get back on a short roll as Jake Jenson had a solid performance and pinned Spencer Hron at the 1:43 mark. Dakota Gullikson followed with a similar performance as he controlled Jake Brinkman before recording a fall at the 3:37 mark in the second period to give the Gators the lead at 34-9.

Standout and state ranked wrestlers from TRF Holden Nelson and Nathanael Holecek took the mat for the Prowlers and both recorded pins. Nelson pinned Collin Berard and Holecek pinned Daron Sikorski to close the gap to 34-21.

The Gators matched those 12 points by scoring 12 of their own as senior Tomm Ingle took the forfeit and senior John Westman recorded a solid pin at the 1:09 mark of the first period to give the Gators their last points of the night and a 46-21 lead.

TRF closed out the scoring as Tyshaun Brown and Chris Kucera both recored falls. Brown pinned Beau Blumer and Kucera recorded a fall over Doug Peterson, to close out the scoring and give the Gators a hard fought 46-33 victory.

The final regular season victory gave the Gators their 16^th victory of the season as they head into team sections with a 16-1 record. Seniors Tomm Ingle and John Westman currently lead the team in victories. Ingle is currently posting a 27-4 record and Westman is currently at 28-4. Both seniors will lead the young Gators into team sections in TRF on Saturday, Feb. 16^th at the Engelstad Arena. Action will start at 10:30 am seeds are still to be determined.

The Gators would like to thank the fans for an excellent turnout in TRF, it was greatly appreciated. The Gator coaching staff would like to congratulate the Gator JV on a great year as they closed out there season with a dominating performance as they won 12 of the 15 matches wrestled to close out a great season for them. Keep up the hard work and the Gator tradition will continue to be successful for years to come.

Go Gators!!!

Monday, February 11, 2013

Knoweldge Bowl

By: Stacey Dahl
The GMR Knowledge Bowl team had great success at the Crookston meet February 5^th. Because of poor weather and team cancellations, the GMR team split into three teams so all participants had a taste of the action. Even though there were fewer teams competing with 23 total teams, the competition was still pretty stiff. GMR Black consisted of Nick Wilson, Brady Kilen, Martyn Novacek, Shey-Anne Schroeder, and Amanda Gram, and together they scored 33 points on the written round and had high scoring oral rounds of 9 points, 7 points, 15 points, and 10 points to earn a 6^th place finish and their first ribbon of the year. Nadja Melby, Joe Hlucny, Derek Nelson, and Chase Anderson helped GMR White earn 57 total points and a 16^th place finish. Competing for GMR Green were Hailey Brazier, Erin Foss, Kayla Stanelle, and Tayler Wilson who scored 51 total points and captured 19^th place. Overall, it was a great day for the Gators! Crookston Blue captured first place honors with 108 total points; Ada-Borup Red came in second with 84 points; East Grand Forks White took third with 81.5; East Grand Forks Green were fourth with 79 points; East Grand Forks Red racked up 77.5 points for 5^th place, and GMR Black with 76.5 points rounded out the top 6 at the meet. The Gators will resume competitive action on Tuesday, February 19, at Crookston. May their minds be sharp and their fingers quick on the buzzer!

CARDIAC KIDS LOSE ANOTHER CLOSE ONE

By: Coach Christian

The BGMR Boys Basketball Team has played several close games this year. Unfortunately the Gators have struggled winning the close ones and Friday night’s game was no exception as the Gators dropped a 47-42 decision to the Northern Freeze.

Playing without their two leading scorers the Gators put up a valiant fight early. Unfortunately for the Gators the Freeze speed and power would send the Gators down 32-21 at halftime. The Gators were down by 16 right before half but a 5-0 run would cut the Freeze lead to 11.

BGMR and Northern would trade baskets early in the second half. The Gators would start running on all cylinders trailing by 13 with just over 3 minutes to play. BGMR picked up the defense, created havoc and finally got some shots to fall as they cut the lead to 2 with 20 seconds to play. BGMR had the ball and a chance to tie or take the lead but a critical traveling violation doomed the Gators. Northern would hit their free throws the rest of the way and the Gator record fell to 9-11.

Senior Alex Rhen had a strong night as he had 12 points. Jacob Randall notched his first career double/double with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Tanner Creviston notched 10 points and although sophomore Aaron Dostal did score he did rake down 11 rebounds.

The Gators will take the weekend off but will return to action on Tuesday when they play one of their two remaining home games. Arch rival Roseau comes to The Swamp and the Gators will be looking to avenge and earlier season loss to the Rams. It should be a great game of two evening matched teams.

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Swamp Night!

Thank you all that came a supported our 5th annual Swamp Night!

GATOR BOYS LOSE ANOTHER CLOSE ONE

By: Coach Christian

The trend of the BGMR Gator Boys Basketball Team losing close games continued at the Gators dropped a 46-40 decision to the Warroad Warriors. A huge Ambulance/First Responder Appreciation Night crowd was treated to a defensive struggle as the Warriors used switching defense and their quickness to take the Gators out of anything BGMR was trying to do. The Gators matched the intensity on defense and limited the Warriors to one shot with that shot usually being contested.

BGMR struggled much of the first half and found themselves down 25-17 at halftime. The Warriors would take control of the game early in the second half pushing their lead to 11. BGMR would managed to cut the lead to 2 with just over 2 minutes to play and had the ball but turnovers and inattentive play killed the Gators down the stretch. The Gators missed several key open looks from inside the paint and were a horrible 5-13 from the foul line. With statistics like that it makes it difficult for any team to come out on top.

Scoring wise the Gators were led by Tanner Creviston who had 15 points and 11 rebounds. Aaron Dostal also hit a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds. Offense however was not a strong point for the Gators on the night as they shot 34% from the field and had an alarming 28 turnovers. Both will be high areas of emphasis as the Gators come down the stretch.

After two days of practice BGMR will travel to Karlstad on Friday night to take on the subsection leading

Northern Freeze. Karlstad is a tough and loud place to play and the Gators are going to have to be at their best to pull home a road victory.

The Gators would like to take this time to thank Sue Lieberg and the area first responders and ambulance crews who were able to attend last night’s game. Lieberg was the mastermind behind the appreciation night and her endless work should not go unrecognized. Also, the first responders and ambulance crews who give of their time to help people and save lives, a great big THANK YOU!

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

SWAMP NIGHT TONIGHT!!

Come join us tonight in the Swamp and support all the local EMT's!

GATORS LOSE DOUBLE OVERTIME THRILLER TO DRAKES

By: Coach Christian

There were frigid temperatures outdoors but the Friday night basketball action at The Swamp was hot as the BGMR Gators and Blackduck Drakes treated the fans to a double overtime basketball game. Unfortunately for the Gators the Drakes were able to hit a key basket with just over 14 seconds left to pull out a 67-65 victory.

BGMR and Blackduck showed early that this was going to be a game down to the wire. Neither team was able to have more than a 7 point lead and whenever it looked as if one team might extend the lead the other team would buckle down and create defensive stops and hit big shots. Despite being in some foul trouble the Gators were able to go into halftime with a 2 point 23-21 lead.

The second half was a back and forth affair with each team having chances to bring home the victory. With the game tied and just over 7 seconds to play the Drakes went the length of the court and had a chance for a winning shot but the Gators came up with a big defensive stop and key rebound to send the game into overtime.

The first overtime was an all out war as both teams fought for the victory. The Gators could have put the game away with just over a minute to play as they made two defensive stops but were unable to add to their two point lead. The Drakes would surge ahead by 2 with just over 15 seconds to play. After a timeout and 10 seconds left on the clock the Gators were able to get a shot off that missed. Both teams scrambled for the rebound and BGMR attempted another shot that rimmed out. The Gators got another board and this time, were able to convert as time expired and sent the game into the second overtime.

BGMR again in the second overtime had several chances to put the game away but Blackduck showed that they would not be denied. With just over 14 seconds and the game tied the Gators broke down on defensive and the Drakes converted an easy basket on an inbounds play. BGMR elected not to take a timeout and raced the ball up the court. The Drakes however played good transition defense and the Gators were unable to get off a solid shot thus sending the Drakes home with the win.

Several Gators had solid nights. Jacquan Rhen led the Gators in scoring with 22 points and notched a double-double with 11 rebounds. Nick Rodriguez also had a double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds. Tanner Creviston hit double figures in scoring with 10 points and played outstanding defense on Drake guard Trey Volk. Volk ended up with 19 hard earned points. The Gators Aaron Dostal had 9 points and 7 boards and Tyler Bentow had a career high 9 rebounds for the Gators.

Although the Gators played extremely hard it was a tough home loss and a game in which the Gators are going to need to start winning as tournament time gets closer. BGMR will finish up their home stand with a game on Tuesday night against a salty Warroad Warrior team. The Warriors have always been a tough match-up for the Gators but it should be another fans delight as these two teams seem evenly matched this year.