Awesome Blossoms hold off Superlarks

Published 10:30 pm Monday, February 10, 2014

Blooming Prairie's Weston Fiebiger, right, controls the ball against the defense of Grand Meadow's Trenton Bleifus in GM Monday. -- Rocky Hulne/sports@austindailyherald.com

Blooming Prairie’s Weston Fiebiger, right, controls the ball against the defense of Grand Meadow’s Trenton Bleifus in GM Monday. — Rocky Hulne/sports@austindailyherald.com

GRAND MEADOW — The Awesome Blossoms got a little more than they expected out of the Superlarks, but Blooming Prairie made enough plays down the stretch to pull off a 66-58 win in a boys basketball game in GM Monday.

Grand Meadow's Landon Jacobson goes up for a lay-up against Blooming Prairie's Jake Decker in Grand Meadow Monday. -- Rocky Hulne/sports@austindailyherald.com

Grand Meadow’s Landon Jacobson goes up for a lay-up against Blooming Prairie’s Jake Decker in Grand Meadow Monday. — Rocky Hulne/sports@austindailyherald.com

The Superlarks (8-13 overall) pulled to within 58-54 with 2:18 left after Landon Jacobson converted a 3-point play, but Scott Romeo hit a lay-up and John Rumpza hit two free throws to make it 62-56 BP with under a minute left.

Romeo scored all 11 of his points in the second half as he helped BP (13-8 overall) win against a physical GM team.

Email newsletter signup

“They kind of took us by surprise. We came in here thinking we were going to get an easier win,” Romeo said. “They played hard and physical the whole way. It got us going at the end.”

BP ran most of its offense through its 6-6 center John Rumpza, who finished with 29 points, 11 rebounds and five steals. Rumpza got some looks inside, but he had to work for most of them as GM’s zone defense surrounded him throughout the night.

“They went to that zone pretty much all game and that helped them a little bit. We were still able to get some looks inside,” Rumpza said. “We didn’t play the best, but it’s good to learn in those situations. It might have been good to get that close game experience.”

BP led 51-38 late in the second half and the Blossoms looked to be headed for a blowout win. But the Larks bounced back with a quick 8-0 run to make it a close game down the stretch. Trenton Bleifus had 24 points, eight rebounds and four assists for GM and Landon Jacobson added 13 points, eight rebounds, five assists and four steals.

“Our boys played really hard, we just made some bonehead plays that really hurt us in key spots,” GM head coach Bob Burmester said. “We’ve got to learn from our mistakes. We hung with them. We’ve just got to make some better basketball plays.”

BP head coach John Bruns gave credit to the Larks for pushing the pace, but he was hoping his team could close out the game a little bitter than it did.

“We struggled with their speed and athleticism. We didn’t handle it as well as I hoped we would,” Bruns said. “We had a nice, comfortable lead and we we were kind of on our way. Grand Meadow didn’t give up at all and we made some poor decisions in transition.”

GM 17 41 — 58

BP 23 43 — 66

BP scoring: John Rumpza, 29; Scott Romeo, 11; Anthony Nelson, 9; Jake Decker, 8; Hunter Rudlong, 5; Mitchell Jones, 2; field goals: 46 percent (25-for-54); 3-pointers: 25 percent (4-for-16); free throws: 85 percent (12-for-14); rebounds: 30 (Rumpza, 11); turnovers: 16

Blooming Prairie's John Rumpza finishes a layup in Grand Meadow Monday. -- Rocky Hulne/sports@austindailyherald.com

Blooming Prairie’s John Rumpza finishes a layup in Grand Meadow Monday. — Rocky Hulne/sports@austindailyherald.com

GM scoring: Trenton Bleifus, 24; Landon Jacobson, 13; Micahel Stejskal, 13; Isaac Tangen, 5; Cody Ojulu, 3; field goals: 39 percent (23-for-58); 3-pointers: 36 percent (7-for-19); free throws: 55 percent (5-for-9); rebounds: 37 (Jacobson, 8; Bleifus, 8); turnovers: 19