Falcons endure hard-fought road loss to Northfield

The actual end result was a hard fought showdown between the two Cannon Valley rivals that resulted in a 66-60 victory for Northfield.

The win moved Northfield’s season record to 15-9, 13-7 Big 9 with two games remaining on its conference schedule against Winona on March 1 and at Rochester John Marshall on March 3. Faribault’s season record falls to 1-24, 1-20 Big 9 and the Falcons will wrap up their regular season campaign on Friday, March 3 with a home date against Winona at 7:30 p.m.

The start of the game was controlled by the Raiders as they took advantage of three Faribault turnovers to built a 16-8 lead with 13:16 left in the first half after Northfield senior Nolan Thompson connected on two free throws.

The Falcons slowly chipped away at the Northfield lead and moved within four points at 26-22 after Mohamed Madey drained a three-point field. Another three-point goal by Faribault’s Brady Schulz narrowed Northfield’s lead to 27-25 with 5:20 left in the first half.

A Northfield turnover then allowed Faribault to tie the game at 27-27 with a jumper in the lane by Madey. The Falcons then stretched their lead to 31-27 before a trey by Northfield’s Soren Richardson closed the gap to 31-30. In the closing minute of the first half, Faribault’s Nolan Vogelsberg issued a pair of unanswered field goals that made the score 36-30 at the intermission.

“We just started making a few more shots,” Faribault coach Eric Hildebrandt said about his team’s first half surge. “Early on, we missed some easy ones at the rim and that allowed them to stretch their lead a bit. We also cleaned some things up defensively and we got better at switching when we wanted to switch…we were in better position and didn’t give them as easy shots as the half went on. Offensively, we just settled in and executed well. We did all the little things to create good shots for each other, so we were able to build a little bit of a lead going into the half.”

Faribault’s offensive success continued in the early going of the second half as the persistent Falcons pushed their lead to 10 points at 42-32 after a pair of free throws by Beau Schrot with 15:06 left in the second half.

The Raiders then made an offensive run that resulted in 13 unanswered points and another lead change. This time it was Northfield’s Isaiah Mahal with a defensive steal that provided an assist for Richardson on a field goal, which gave the Raiders a 43-42 edge with 12:15 left in the game.

Not quite finished for the evening, Faribault did manage to regain a 52-51 lead at 6:45 of the second after a three-pointer from Madey. Northfield’s Simon Lippert later tied the game with a three-pointer at 54-54. On the next trip up court, Lippert then connected with Kyan Rauk for a basket that resulted in a three-point play and a 57-55 lead after Rauk converted the free throw.

Lippert also added another assist on a basket by Richardson that pushed the Raider lead to 59-56. Northfield then padded its lead again after a lane violation by Faribault allowed Richardson to have a second chance at sinking two more free throws to make it 61-56.

In the closing minute of play, Faribault fouls allowed Northfield to maintain the lead with free throws by Richardson and Austin Koep. With 20 seconds left, Koep completed the Raider offense with a basket to make it 66-58.

Richardson led all scorers in the game with 24 points and also contributed seven assists. Koep joined the double-digit club for Northfield with 12 points, while DiMaggio shared the team’s rebound lead with Richardson at five apiece. Other top scorers for Northfield included Sam Scherer with eight and Rauk with seven.

Faribault was led by Ian Ehlers with 15 points and five rebounds, while Madey had 12 points and the duo of Schulz and Vogelsberg had nine points apiece for the Falcons.

Hildebrandt had praise for Northfield’s play and also added his insight Faribault’s results in the second half of the contest.

“They (Northfield) are a really good team with a lot of good players, and they just did what they do and did it well,” Hildebrandt said. “We just had a few stretches where we got away from the things that helped us be successful and got a little bit stagnant offensively. We didn’t turn it over a lot, which is good, but we had a few bad timed back-to-back turnovers that resulted in back-to-back buckets for them, and to their credit they took advantage of those.”

He added, “But I thought we put ourselves in great position in the game and that is what you want to do especially when you are on the road against a great team.”

Hildebrandt continued with his thoughts into his team’s solid play against Northfield, “We’ve been making continual progress throughout the year and going in the right direction. It takes time. We have five seniors who are tremendous leaders and we have a lot of young players who are really getting a taste of varsity action for the first time. We are really learning how to play well together and that is starting to show on both ends of the floor and certainly we can take this one with confidence and move forward.“