Nolan Toft scored 25 of his career-high 41 points in the second half to lead the Nevis boys basketball team to a 78-74 Northland Conference victory over Cass Lake last Friday night at the Tiger Arena.
Cass Lake jumped out to a 12-5 lead before six baskets by Toft, three baskets by Dylan Stenberg and two field goals by Logan Gooch pulled the Tigers to within 40-36 at the half.
Toft sparked the Tigers' rally in the second half as Nevis improved to 9-5 in the conference for sole possession of third place. Cass Lake fell to 11-2 in conference play and 19-6 overall. Red Lake tops the conference standings with a 13-1 record.
Rounding out the conference standings are Blackduck (8-6), Walker-Hackensack-Akeley (6-7), Pine River-Backus (4-10), Kelliher/Northome (3-10) and Laporte (0-13).
Toft also had 12 rebounds while Stenberg and Hunter Schroeder scored 11 points each. Stenberg added nine rebounds, five assists and four steals. Mitch Rehkamp grabbed seven rebounds, Jacques Lien had three assists and Schroeder had two steals as the Tigers improved to 13-11 overall.
ADVERTISEMENT
"This was by far our biggest win of the season and it couldn't have come at a better time," said Nevis head coach Scott Kramer. "After having struggled as of late and putting some undue pressure on ourselves, we needed to get back to basics and just have some fun. We went into the game with the mindset that we were the underdogs and the pressure was on them since they needed to win out to be conference co-champs. We did a nice job of playing the spoiler role as we had a total team effort."
The Tigers closed out the regular season with a game against Verndale Thursday night.
"It was a huge win and confidence builder for us," said Kramer. "We hope to use this win to build momentum for the section tournament and hopefully it will help us with the seeding."
