BP boys get five in double figures in victory

Published 11:12 pm Monday, February 2, 2009

BLOOMING PRAIRIE — Five Awesome Blossom boys hit double figures in Monday night’s win over Kenyon-Wanamingo, 78-62.

Matt Zellmer was joined by team mates Austin Moe, Josh Toquam, Israel Clark and Cooper Nelson as five players who made it look easy as they moved the ball around the court and found each other under the hoop, in the lane and outside the arc.

“Great balance,” head coach John Bruns said as he bounded from the gym into the school’s hallway after the crowd had cleared and most of the players had already exited the building.

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“Five guys in double figures,” said Bruns. “Zellmer only had 12 shots, he could have taken more but they really moved the ball around tonight.”

The Blossoms (12-2) didn’t jump out to a big lead nor did they ever lead by anymore than 15 at any point but they kept the Knights (4-8) at bay throughout the game by maintaining a fast pace and by not missing many shots.

K-W committed 22 fouls on BP and that didn’t help their effort out at all as the Blossoms hit 71 percent of their shots from the charity stripe. Toquam (4-4), Clark (5-6), Zellmer (5-7) and Moe (5-8) all hit big.

Hopefully for Blooming this game will be a good warm up as they ready themselves to play conference rival Mankato Loyola tonight at home.

“We are going to have to be at our best tomorrow night,” Bruns said. “Loyola has a lot of good shooters.”

Mankato Loyola (11-2 overall, 8-2 Gopher Conference) is sitting in third place right now in the Gopher Conference, following first place Faribault Bethlehem Academy and the second place Blossoms.

Mankato is coming off a 72-48 loss to fourth in the conference foes, Waterville-Elysian-Morristown from this last Friday night.

BP hasn’t suffered a regulation time loss for over a month and their only other loss came two weeks ago to the conference leaders and that game was lost in triple over-time by three points.

Zellmer has been the hot hand for Blooming Prairie has he is still averaging over 25 points a game and is consistently in double figures most nights in rebounds while doing his fair share of stealing and knocking down the occasional blocked shot.

Tuesday night’s game against Mankato will be in Blooming Prairie with tip set for 7:30 pm.

BP     38  40 — 78

K-W  28  34 — 62

BP scoring: Matt Zellmer 18, Austin Moe 17, Cooper Nelson 14, Josh Toquam 11, Israel Clark 10, Justen Ingvalson 4, Robert Hofius 2, Josh Johnson 2.

K-W scoring: Brandon Quam 14, Brady Anfinson 13, Jamie Hiner 9, Andrew Johnson 8, Dan Lewis 7, Ben Fletcher 5, Ryan Overby 2, Alex Maring 2.