The Cardinal boys are 13-8 after two big WCC-West come-from-behind wins last week. The Cards, on the road, defeated Mound-Westonka on Tuesday, Jan. 27, and Dassel-Cokato on Friday, Jan. 30.
The Cardinals are now 5-1 in the WCC-West. With Glencoe-Silver Lake losing to New London-Spicer last Friday, the Cards are now in the No. 1 spot in the WCC-West.
Annandale 74
Mound-Westonka 59
The White Hawks have played very well this year. The beat Litchfield and New London-Spicer and lost to Glencoe-Silver Lake by only three points.
"I thought we came out and played hard but we could not get shots to fall early," said head coach Skip Dolan. "Then we went into a funk and stopped playing defense. I was extremely disappointed in our post defense in the first half. Their bigs destroyed us on the inside and we just took it."
The Cardinals trailed the White Hawks 41-33 at the half.
"At halftime I let my feelings be known to our bigs and challenge them to show me something in the second half," Dolan said.
Annandale switched from a straight man-to-man to a triangle- and-two in the second half. That put Knickerbocker on top of the triangle and Wilken and Hinz on the bottom.
"We have the perfect kids to run a triangle-and-two," Dolan said. "Those are big and long kids that can cover a lot of ground. Fobbe and Hohenstein took the two kids out of the game that were killing us in the first half," Dolan said. "They managed to completely frustrate them and shut them down in the second half. The three bigs dominated their areas and we had the White Hawks completely baffled in the second half, holding them to only 18 points."
The Cardinal offense put up 41 points in the second half. Knickerbocker had a balanced night, putting up 12 in the first half and 15 in the second.
Zach Kuefler came up big for the Cards, hitting four three-pointers, including a 30-footer right before the buzzer. That shot brought the Cardinals within eight at the half.
"The first half we seemed lost and I was concerned that maybe we had taken a step back," Dolan said. "But in the second we played like we could play with anybody. This could be an interesting end to the year."
Team statistics
Shots made: 24-48, 50 percent
Three point: 7-17, 38 percent
Free throws: 19-26, 73 percent
Offensive rebounds: 8
Defensive rebounds: 20
Assists: 14
Steals: 8
Blocks: 2
Turnovers: 9
Personal fouls: 14
Bench points: 16
Second-chance points: 6
Points off turnovers: 7
Individual statistics
Points: Knickerbocker 27; Wilken 14; Kuefler 14; Hohenstein 6; Fobbe 6; Hinz 5; Weege 2.
Three point: Kuefler 4-6; Knickerbocker 2-7; Wilken 1-3.
Free throws: Knickerbocker 7-7; Wilken 3-5; Kuefler 2-2; Hohenstein 2-2; Fobbe 2-3; Weege 2-4; Hinz 1-3.
Rebounds: Wilkin 7; Hohenstein 5; Hinz 4; Knickerbocker 3; Kuefler 3; Fobbe 3; Weege 3.
Assists: Fobbe 4; Hinz 3; Wilken 3; Alama 2; Wadman 1; Hohenstein 1; Knickerbocker 1.
Steals: Kuefler 3; Knickerbocker 2; Hohenstein 1; Fobbe 1; Hinz 1.
Blocks: Wilken 1; Knickerbocker 1.
Personal fouls: Knickerbocker 3; Fobbe 3; Wilken 2; Hohenstein 2; Kuefler 2; Hinz 1; Weege 1.
Annandale 74
Dassel-Cokato 66 (OT)
"We knew this also was going to be a dog fight. We were 4-1 coming into the game and they were 3-2," Dolan said. "They had just been to Litchfield and won and we had lost to Litchfield that same week. This Charger team is the best DC has seen in quite a few years. They have size, shooters and physical strength. I thought we were ready to compete. To say the least, we weren’t."
The Chargers came out and hit their first two baskets and the Cardinals were down 5-0.
"I thought we would settle in," Dolan said. "Then it went from bad to worse. Before I knew it we down 17-2."
Dolan took a time out and told the starting five how disappointed he was with them and their effort.
"We had made six trips up the floor, and gotten off only one shot; we had not defended the drive and gave up uncontested threes," Dolan said. "I just felt that they didn’t understand that it is a privilege to start on an Annandale basketball team and they were not playing like it."
Dolan benched all five of the starters.
"I told them to enjoy it from the bench for a while," Dolan said. "I put in Alex Alama, Brett Wadman, Brad Weege, Zach Kuefler and Darius Klein; I consider this my hustle group."
The Chargers came out and hit a three. Now the Cardinals were down 20-2. The "hustle" group did not score any points, but had some great shots that just didn’t fall in. They also played great defense.
"I thought they settled us down, showed the other group that they better get their butts in gear or they would continue to sit on the bench," Dolan said.
The starters came back in to the game and they made a great run towards the end of the first half, cutting the Charger lead to two.
"But as always, when you’re in that situation, you just give up a couple of three-point shots and your’re right back down," Dolan said.
The first half ended with the Cards down 10 points, 34-24.
"I told them it did not do any good for me to get angry at halftime anymore," Dolan said. "They either got it or didn’t during the first half. I told them to just chip away at their lead."
The team ran a back door cut to Fobbe to start the second half. It worked beautifully. The Cardinals pressed and got some key turnovers and they were right back in the game. The Cards just could not seem to get the lead. The Chargers kept fending them off.
"Chase hit some big shots for us down the stretch like he always does, but Jarod was the one that really came through for us in the second half," Dolan said.
Dolan took a timeout to freeze their free throw shooter and he challenged the players to go get a rebound.
The Charger player missed the free throw, but DC recovered it and made a basket.
"Jarod felt bad, I know he did," Dolan said. "But he came down the floor and with ice water in his veins he stuck a 25-foot three-pointer and gave us great control."
The Cards outscored the Chargers 37-27 in the second half, sending the game into over-time. In the overtime period the Cards put up 13 points to the Chargers’ five.
"I so proud of this group.What battlers they have turned out to be," Dolan said.
Team statistics
Shots made: 24-59, 40 percent
Three point: 6-21, 28 percent
Free throws: 20-28, 71 percent
Offensive rebounds: 11
Defensive rebounds: 29
Assists: 13
Steals: 11
Blocks: 2
Turnovers: 10
Personal fouls: 19
Bench points: 23
Second-chance points: 7
Points off turnovers: 7
Individual statistics
Points: Knickerbocker 35; Kuefler 13; Wilken 7; Weege 7; Hohenstein 5; Fobbe 4; Alama 3.
Three point: Knickerbocker 2-5; Kuefler 2-8; Wilken 1-2; Alama 1-2.
Free throws: Kuefler 7-8; Knickerbocker 7-11; Hohenstein 3-5; Fobbe 2-3; Weege 1-1.
Rebounds: Wilken 11; Knickerbocker 11; Hohenstein 6; Hinz 4; Weege 3; Kuefler 1; Fobbe 1; Alama 1; Kleine 1; Wadman 1.
Assists: Wilken 4; Hohenstein 3; Kuefler 2; Hinz 2; Knickerbocker 1; Fobbe 1.
Steals: Knickerbocker 6; Kuefler 3; Wilken 1; Hohenstein 1.
Blocks: Knickerbocker 2.
Personal Fouls: Fobbe 5; Wilken 4; Knickerbocker 3; Weege 2; Wadman 2; Hohenstein 1; Hinz 1; Kuefler 1.
Up next
■ Tuesday, Feb 3, the Cards travel to Delano for a 7:15 p.m. non-conference game against the Tigers.
Cardinal fans may remember the Cardinal’s 43-38 victory over the Tigers in February of 2014. The Cardinals came out in the second half and went up by four. When the Cardinals got the ball back Dolan decided to rest his team, but not in the usual sense. The Cardinals more or less rested out on the floor for about 10 minutes.
Matt Miller held the ball out at the half court line. The Tiger coach told his players to stay back. A cat and mouse game was on. The Delano coach, players and Tiger fans were not pleased, but it worked and Cards won.
■ Thursday, Feb. 6, the Cardinals host New London-Spicer for a 7 p.m. WCC-West game. The Cards defeated the Wildcats earlier in the season 68-38.