The Rundown – December 7

<p><em>In this first edition of The Rundown, I’m going to catch you up on some of Monday night’s action. Spoiler: mostly blowouts. A cross-town rivalry gave us an exciting exception to that, and there were some fantastic individual performances.</em></p> <p><strong>Border rivals play a close one</strong></p> <p>Sioux City North hosted South Sioux City (NE) on Monday evening, and when the final buzzer sounded they sent them back across the river with a loss. It wasn’t pretty. Sioux City North shot 31% from the field and 25% from three, and they’re the ones who came out with the win, 63-62. It was tight in the first two periods, South Sioux City with only a two point advantage. But, after the break, the visitors from Nebraska put together a run. It seemed about over considering the offensive slog all game, an 8-point lead enough to put away the opponent for the night. The North Stars responded with their best quarter of the night, outscoring the opponent 18-9, securing a one-point victory and ending a 21-game losing streak. <strong>Evan Helvig</strong> and <strong>Gavin Haughe</strong>, the only two seniors on the North Stars, posted double-figure scoring totals. Evan scored 24 points and 6 rebounds, while Gavin put together a 14 and 4. </p> <p><strong>Pella Christian picks up first win of season</strong></p> <p>The Eagles get in the win column with a 34 point victory over the PCM Mustangs. It was a balanced effort for Pella Christian. Four players reached double-digit scoring, and three others with more than six points. <strong>Jaedon Huisman</strong> led the team with 12 points. The big man <strong>Eric Mulder</strong> added in 10 more points, led the team in rebounds with 6, and also had 5 steals. They nearly shot 50% from the field and from three, and played excellent team defense on the night. They limited paint scoring for PCM, and held them to forced jumpers for most of the night.</p> <p><strong>One-man show for Belle Plaine</strong></p> <p>The Plainsmen faced off against the BCLUW comets, and picked up their first victory of the year, 53-34. The 19-point margin was largely due to <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="962683" first="Ben" last="DeMeulenaere"]</strong>’s explosive night. The junior shot 14/18 from the field, scoring 28 points. No other Plainsmen reached double-figures. Ben also piled up 13 rebounds and 2 blocks.</p> <p><strong>Quick Hits</strong></p> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="964855" first="Leyton" last="Nelson"]</strong>, a senior for the Tri-City Trojans, had 27 points and 11 rebounds in a blowout win over West Harrison. He was 7/12 from the field and hit half of his three point shots.</p> <p>Estherville Lincoln Central starting five all reached double-figure scoring.<strong> Ryan Schlitz</strong> (13 points), <strong>Kevin Egeland</strong> (10), <strong>Matt Christensen</strong> (10), <strong>Will Larson</strong> (14), and <strong>Owen Larson</strong> (15).</p> <p>&nbsp;</p>