Staff
It was another interesting and intense night in Fort Frances Men’s Basketball League action Tuesday at Fort High as some games had lots of drama while the other had almost none.
The first game of the night saw the Muskies taking on Arctic Cat.
This game was pretty low-key as Arctic Cat (4-4) only fielded three players, which was odd for a team that usually has more than enough guys come out.
With the Muskies only having four players, Arctic Cat picked up Will Richards–who put up a fair number of points in what was a losing cause.
The highlight of the game, at least for proud dad, Todd, was when older brother, Wyatt Richards, threw down the first dunk in league play in a long time.
The Muskies (3-5) ended up winning the game by forfeit.
The second game had the BDO Ballerz squaring off against Sunset Landscaping.
The last time these two teams played, the game ended in a tie–and this game was just as exciting as there were big runs by both teams and a very close finish.
Tied at 16-16, Sunset went on a huge 14-0 run, powered by excellent drives to the hoop by Josh Mastin (31 points) and Devon George (eight).
The Ballerz found themselves down 32-18 at the half.
Sunset (4-3-1) put up a few baskets to start the second half but then BDO went on a nice 12-0 run of its own through the sweet shooting of Rob McGinnis (12 points) and the inside work of Chris Wall.
The two squads continued to battle back and forth, with BDO (2-5-1) taking the lead at one point until things were tied at 45-45 with less than two minutes to go.
Sunset went up by one on a foul shot. Then on its next possession, BDO failed to capitalize as it forced the ball and missed key shots.
Sunset then came back down the court and were fouled a number of times, but each time scored only one of their two free throws.
That gave the ball back to the Ballerz with a chance to tie it, but unfortunately for them they missed their shots and Sunset won by a 50-47 margin.
The final game of the night featured a heated affair between the Revco Renegades and the undefeated RBC Lions.
RBC won the last meeting between these two teams but only by three points–so there was some optimism on the Renegades’ side that they could stay competitive and go for a win.
But with only four players suiting up for the team in red, they realized they would not make much of a game of it on their own so they took the forfeit.
After Revco picked up a few players, the game was on.
It was a competitive one for the first half, with even scoring by Revco matching up against the high-flying duo of Sam Soderman and Brady Jensson, enabling the Renegades (2-6) to only be down 40-34 at halftime.
But in the second half, Revco’s offence dried up while the Rainy River connection of Jensson (31 points, including seven three-pointers), Corey Smith (23 points), and Theron George (16 points and four “treys”) heated up–putting the game well out of reach.
Things got quite emotional when Soderman, who was having another strong game, felt he was undercut on an in-bound pass from the end line.
No foul was called on the play and, in frustration at what he saw as a dangerous play and missed call, Soderman lashed out at the ref.
That outburst resulted in a technical foul being called, and then a second technical when Soderman refused to calm down.
The two technicals meant Soderman was ejected from the game. He also received a one-game suspension from the league convenor for continuing to verbally assault the ref after being ejected.
That dampened the mood of the game but didn’t slow down the Lions (8-0) in the least, as they cruised to an easy 84-51 win.
Steve Windels and Todd Richards each had 11 points to lead Revco.
Next week’s games will see the Muskies taking on Sunset in the early game at 6:40 p.m. while Revco will square off against Arctic Cat at 7:30.
RBC then will try to keep its perfect record intact against BDO at 8:30 p.m.