January 23, 2025 at 2:00 p.m.
Eagles outlast Vikings in back and forth test
The five point difference between Barneveld and Pecatonica was not unexpected.
When those teams get together there is no favorite, just two teams slugging it out for two halves of basketball.
Thursday it was Barneveld’s turn to finish on top as they got past the Vikings 56-51. The halftime score was 29-26 with the Golden Eagles leading. The game was that close throughout.
Konnor Jasinski and Judson Poad led the Eagles with 15 points each. Eight Eagles entered the scoring column in he win.
Griffin Noll put in 16, Charles Anderson 15 and Cohlman Schlimgen 11 for the Vikings.
“What a game tonight!” exclaimed Barneveld coach Tyler Sullivan. “We knew it was going to be a battle and it was everything we expected. I thought we played really hard tonight defensively, but we didn’t clean up some possessions that we gave them opportunities to score and they made us pay for it.”
One of the struggles in the match-up was dealing with Pecatonica’s big man Charles Anderson.
“Anderson is a load inside and he did a really good job of sealing us and rebounding the ball on the offensive end,” Sullivan said. “They make it tough when they have him inside and a couple shooters that can knock shots down on the perimeter. It seemed like every time we lost an assignment or didn’t rebound, they converted and that was the difference in the game in my opinion.”
Contributions on the offensive end paid off for the Eagles.
“Offensively I thought we did some really good things, but we need to do a better job finishing around the rim,” Sullivan said. “The first half we had quite a few misses down low and I thought if we could have made a few of those it would have extended our lead at half and let us breathe a bit. But the reality is we didn’t shoot it well from the perimeter but still found a way to gut it out and get a big win.”
In the end it was excelling in the mental part of the game that helped the Eagles claim the key win in the Six Rivers.
“I was really proud of our guys for keeping their composure and not getting rattled in the big moment,” Sullivan said.
SCORE BY HALVES
Barneveld 29 27 56
Pecatonica 26 25 51
BOX SCORE
BARNEVELD 56: (fg-ft-tp) Shipman 2-0-4, Jasinski 5-3-15, Knight 0-0-0, Poad 6-1-15, Larson 2-0-5, Marx 4-0-8, Kephart 0-0-0 Malin 1-0-2, Thousand 1-0-2, Lease 2-1-5 Totals 23-5/8-56. Fouls-12
PECATONICA 51: M. Anderson 3-3-9, Schlimgen 3-2-11, Noll 6-3-16, Erickson 0-0-0, Enloe 0-0-0, Sass 0-0-0, Stateler 0-0-0, Dominic 0-0-0, C. Anderson 5-5-15. Totals 17-13/21-51. Fouls-11
3 point goals:
B-Jasinski 2, Poad 2, Larson 1
P-Noll 1, Schlimgen 3