Wahpeton and Northern Cass delivered an all-time classic Tuesday night in the Region 1A Boys Basketball Semifinals at North Dakota State University. It took triple overtime for Wahpeton to jump the Jaguars on the scoreboard for good, 69-62.
Brayden Steffens led the second-seeded Huskies over the third-seeded Jaguars with a career-high 30 points. The junior added seven rebounds and three assists in 43 minutes on the hardwood.
Steffens did his damage on 12-of-23 shooting, hanging in the air for several tough jumpers to carry his squad inside a packed Scheels Center.
Treyton Mauch scored 15 points. The senior’s driving layup in the first overtime tied the contest at 60 and his steal near half court in the final OT helped put the game on ice.
Bjorn Kubela added 12 points and a game-high five steals, while knocking down four straight free throws down the stretch.
The Huskies didn’t attempt a free throw until the final 90 seconds of regulation, but drilled 10 of 11 foul shots down the stretch. Northern Cass shot 6 of 12 at the charity stripe, including three straight misses with the game on the line.
Alex Comings was whistled for an intentional foul at the end of the second OT, but Northern Cass came up empty on both free throws. The Jaguars retained possession, and missed a go-ahead three before the potential game-winning putback was swatted away by Comings in a moment of redemption.
Northern Cass was led by 19 points from Trey Husar and 15 from Hudson Rietschel. Keelan Monson was a monster during crunch time, pulling down eight of his game-high nine rebounds in the fourth quarter and bonus periods.
Wahpeton will face Kindred at 7:30 p.m. for the Region 1A Championship on AM 1450 and kbmwnews.com. Northern Cass will play Central Cass in the third place game to tip-off the action at 6 p.m.
