Tuesday night included something that will never happen again, a future Bison Basketball player from just down the road came just East of the River to play his last regular season game. For those who may want to glimpse, Breckenridge is scheduled to play at Hawley on the 21st. I, like many who follow Bison athletics, had heard about Noah Christensen because of his recruitment & subsequent commitment to playing for coach Richman. I had not however seen him play in person until last night. So I'll get into some of the details of the game but will also be talking about what I saw from Christensen on the court.
The first half was nearly as even as it gets with a single point separating Breckenridge from DGF. 14 of the Cowboys' 34 points came from Cooper Yaggie, with another nine from Christenson. The Rebels topped at seven apiece from Drew Coalwell & Nathan Leitner.
Christensen showed some off some nice moves handling the ball, being a willing passer & making plays around the hoop. At times I thought he may have been deferring too much to his teammates but the flip side of that is that he wasn't a black hole just looking to put up numbers for himself. The thing that impressed me most is that he didn't just sit on the three point line like so many are apt to do these days.
So the second half began and the Rebels burst out with a 15 - 7 run to give themselves a nine point lead a third of the way through the half. They pushed it to 11, minutes after that and held it around 10 for most of the middle third. But then the Big Cowboy started exerting himself beyond what he had shown up to that point. Christensen put an exclamation point on it when he took the ball coast to coast with the finish and a foul. His nice shooting motion helped him complete the three point play & give Breck a fighting chance.
Now up only two, it was DGF's time to respond. A three gave them a bit of cushion but with 40 seconds remaining it had closed to a one shot game again. As they clung to the three point lead the ball fell into the ready hands of Leitner who didn't waste the opportunity. His and-one gave the Rebels the space they needed & forced Breckenridge to foul. The DGF players made their shots and closed out the game.
DGF 72, Breckenridge 64
It's a good win for the Rebels as they fight for position in Section 8 standings. It was also, I think, a good showing by the future of the Bison program. He fouled out and he missed some time in the first half because of a cut but he showed many things that he can do on the court. Things that I would expect will become even better with the training & tutelage of a D1 Basketball program.
Noah Christensen finished with the game high in points, 23, with Cooper Yaggie adding 17. For the Rebels it was Drew Coalwell's 17 that paced the way while Nathan Leitner finished with 15 and Aiden Leach added 10.
Player of the Game
Nathan Leitner
Coalwell may have slightly edged him in points but a crunch time bucket more than makes up for that two point difference.
Photo of the Game
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