The Yellow Jackets were red hot, enabling them to shoot their way to a 84-75 win over the Riverland men on Wednesday.

Thursday, February 03, 2000

The Yellow Jackets were red hot, enabling them to shoot their way to a 84-75 win over the Riverland men on Wednesday.

The Yellow Jackets shot 75 percent in the second half and 63 overall.

It was the home team that got off to a rip-roaring start. Jesse Heiny got things going with a three-pointer. He then hit a field goal. Buckets by Brandon Kettner, with an assist to Heiny, and Garret Ulrich made it 9-0 just two minutes into the game.

Rochester then got things going and pulled to within two, 15-13 before the Blue Devils whipped off 13 of the next 16 points, ending with a Nick Peters’ three-pointer halfway through the opening 20 minutes.

The see-saw then went up for Rochester and down for Riverland as the visitors went on a 15-2 run to take a 31-30 lead. Ulrich hit a trey to put Riverland up again. It stayed ahead for the rest of the half with Riverland taking a 41-37 lead into the locker room.

Both teams were on fire at the beginning of the second half. With the Blue Devils, hard to believe, just a little hotter. They built a 12-point lead, 64-52, before they ran in to a cold spell leading to a 17-2 run by Rochester. The Blue Devils threw the ball away a couple of times and missed some shots while Rochester kept on heating up. It didn’t help matters when Heiny got into foul trouble.

"They took advantage by posting their guards," Riverland coach David Lillemon said. "We missed Jesse most on the defensive end."

Rochester was also going to its big man in the post, Jeremy Scott. Scott was eight-of-nine from the floor with 18 points in the game, 15 in the second half. Also shooting the lights out were Seth Nell, 24 points, and Nick Freitag, 17.

"They have a lot of weapons," Lillemon said. "Freitag and Nell are very good ballplayers. It is hard to beat a team that shoots that well."

With five minutes left in the game Riverland tied the game up at 69 when Beau Hartman hit a trey from the top of the key. It was again tied at 71. Rochester then scored the next 11 points with Nell doing much of the damage at the free throw line, hitting seven straight.

Riverland (12-9, 2-6) now faces a tough challenge to get to the state tournament. It begins with a trip to Minneapolis on Saturday to face the top team in the Southern Division. They also have Conference games against Minnesota West, Anoka-Ramsey, and Ridgewater who are all ahead of them in the standings. Rochester is now 13-7 overall and 5-3 in the Division.

Rochester (84)

Seth Nell 24, Nick Freitag 17, Joel Wandrey 12, Matt Davidson 0, Jeremy Scott 18, Jeff Schultz 10, Jeremy McBroom 0, Kurt Dingmann 3.

Riverland (75)

Beau Hartman 9, Garret Ulrich 18, Brandon Kettner 16, Brett Rogers 10, Jesse Heiny 14, Nick Peters 5, Tom Yost 0, Zak Ulwelling 1, Jake Greenman 0, Shane Fett 0, Corey Pluta 2.

Halftime Score: Riverland 41, Rochester 37.

Riverland women

Rochester 69, Riverland 64

Brooke Kosok came back to haunt her former teammates. With less than a minute remaining in the game between Kosok’s new team, the Rochester Yellow Jackets, and her old team, the Riverland Blue Devils, she nailed a three-pointer from the right wing to put the Yellow Jackets up five, 68-63.

Rochester went on to win 69-64.

The Yellow Jackets were running the clock down waiting for the open shot and Kosok found it.

"I happened to get open," Kosok said. "I just knocked it down after struggling all night."

The loss pretty much dashed the hopes of the Blue Devils to get to the state tournament, but they are still looking at finishing above .500 for the year.

They have a very good chance of winning in Minneapolis on Saturday before heading to Owatonna next Thursday to play Pillsbury College. The game with Pillsbury replaces the Minnesota West game on the schedule.

"We are looking to put a two-game winning streak together to get to 13 wins before we play Anoka-Ramsey at home on Feb. 12," Riverland coach Suzy Hebrink said.

With the win Rochester pretty much secured a place in the state tournament by finishing no worse than fourth. The Yellow Jackets are now 4-3 in the Southern Division and 15-4 overall.

"It was great to see old friends," said Kosok, who set her friendships aside and played with a killer instinct, "but we needed the win to go to state."

Rochester controlled the game from the outset building the lead to as much as 12 points in the first half.

Riverland hung though with the gutsy interior play of Anna Keefe, who was coming back after reinjuring her knee last week. At the half Rochester was up 37-28.

"Anna did a good job of rebounding and playing defense," Hebrink said.

Riverland kept battling and cut to lead to five or seven a couple of times, but Rochester would again pull back in front. Halfway through the half, Riverland’s other inside presence, Melissa Rosel, picked up her fifth foul. Rochester then began to attack the basket and pulled out to a 13-point lead, 64-51, with about six minutes to play.

But the stubborn Blue Devils went on a 12-1 run to pull within two, 65-63. Renea Bebler scored 10 of those dozen points during the run, hitting two three pointers and two field goals. Bebler ended up with 27 in the game, including four treys.

"I told my team that she can hit the three," Kosok said about her old teammate. "Once she hits one they keep going in after that."

Rachel Burzinski scored the other two points in the run with her patented steal and pell-mell drive to the basket. Burzinski scored 21 in the game.

"Rachel and Renea have been our scorers all year," Hebrink said.

Rochester (69)

Carrie Schwartz 12, Brooke Kosok 9, Kimberly Lambrecht 5, Rowena Sizer 16, Holly Graner 16, Shelley Boettcher 5, Melissa Lange 6 Brooke Oeltjen 0, Ami Peterson 0.

Riverland (64)

Rachel Burzinski 21, Anna Keefe 5, Melissa Rosel 4, Renea Bebler 27, Breanna Seira 3, Alissa Goetzinger 4.

Halftime Score: Rochester 37, Riverland 28.