THIEF RIVER FALLS - The Cass Lake-Bena boys basketball team is one game away from the state tournament.
The Panthers dismantled Fosston 102-52 in the Section 8A East Subsection Final Friday night at Ralph Engelstad Arena and advanced to Tuesday's section championship game against Fertile-Beltrami.
"We played perfect tonight and we had fun, just like coach always says," Cass Lake-Bena sophomore Martin Wind said. "We executed tonight."
Wind was a one-man wrecking crew in the Panthers 14th straight victory, scoring a team-high 28 points with four 3-pointers.
Cass Lake-Bena had five players reached double figures scoring. Joel Salscheider had 15 points, Nate Howard 14, Jeromy O'Brien 13 and Nate Salcscheider 12.
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The Panthers defense played strong as well, only allowing Jesse DeFrang to do the damage. He finished the game with 27 points with five 3-pointers. He was the only Greyhound to reach double figures.
"We have to give our hats off to Fosston," Cass Lake-Bena head coach Dan Ninham said. "They played us tough early and we weren't able to get through the full court press."
Cass Lake-Bena, the No. 1 seed in the East subsection and the No. 2 ranked team in the state, will face West subsection No. 2 seed Fertile-Beltrami Tuesday night at 7 p.m. at Thief River Falls. Fertile-Beltrami defeated top-seeded Badger/Greenbush-Middle River 68-45 Friday night at Thief River Falls.
"Everything is coming to a peak," Ninham said. "One more win we go to state, a loss and we'll go home. We've been keying on Badger, but the way things are going, you never know."
Cass Lake-Bena improved to 26-3 and made it through the East subsection with victories against Clearbrook-Gonvick, Win-E-Mac and the upstart No. 6 seed Greyhounds.
Fosston ended its season 12-16 and defeated Red Lake County Central and Red Lake in subsection playoffs.
Like the two previous playoff games, Cass Lake-Bena was played tough early. The score was tied 6-6 through six minutes of play before the Panthers went on a 18-9 run to take a 24-15 lead with eight minutes remaining in the first half.
During that run, the Panthers were able to get solid 3-point shooting from Wind and Howard.
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"When we are able to get outside shooting, things are able to open up so we can drive and dish inside," Wind said.
Cass Lake-Bena outscored Fosston 20-11 in the final eight minutes to take a 44-26 lead at halftime.
Fosston struggled under the Panthers defense after the break and managed to score only six points through the first seven minutes of the second half.
With 9:40 remaining in the game, Cass Lake-Bena led 72-38 and with 7:05 remaining, the Panthers were up 84-43.
Cass Lake-Bena, which averages 94 points per game, scored its 100th point of the game with 1:30 left in the game.
"We just had good ball movement tonight and we were able to push the pace good and hard," Wind said.
Nate Salscheider led the Panthers with 14 rebounds, Wind finished with a team-high eight assists. Cass Lake-Bena finished with 23 steals in the game.
Travis Heusers had 7 for Cass Lake-Bena, Ryan Lemon 3, Joe Fowler 2 and Tyler Trosen 2.
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The Pantheers hit 11 3-pointers in the game and were 9-for-12 from the free throw line.
