Boys basketball: Red Lake prevails in double OT

The Red Lake Warriors avoided a major upset Saturday night, holding off game Northome-Kelliher to pull out a double overtime 67-63 decision.

It moves the Warriors into the Section 8A-East Subsection semifinal Tuesday night at Thief River Falls to face Red Lake County Central or Fosston.

Cass Lake-Bena will battle Win-E-Mac in the opener.

Red Lake entered the playoffs as the No. 2 seed. N-K was seeded seventh and turned back Baudette in the play-in game.

But one would have had great difficulty judging which team was the favorite in watching the two-hour struggle.

Both teams came out at breakneck speed and kept up that pace until the final horn sounded.

Most of the game, however, resembled a game of street ball with the Mustangs guilty of 32 turnovers and Red Lake 31.

Each team led at one point by ten. Neither was able to capitalize on that margin.

The final 12 minutes found Red Lake taking narrow leads and N-K catching up, tying the game at 43 and again at 53 in the final seconds on Ray Schuh's drive in.

The Mustangs took a three-point lead into the final seconds of the first overtime only to foul a three-point shooter who calmly drained all three charity tosses.

But Red Lake scored the first basket of the second extra session and never trailed, ending the game with the final bucket to widen the lead to four points.

Rob Pemberton Jr. led the Warriors with 20 including five in the second overtime.

Sam Kingbird hit 12 and Tim Lajeunesse 11.

Schuh took game honors with 24 for the Mustangs. Charlie Schuh hit 14 and Curtis Lundin 12.

N-K took advantage of repeated Red Lake turnovers to jump ahead 13-3 in the first four minutes fueled by treys from Dylan Ungerecht and Ray Schuh.

But Red Lake began forcing turnovers and ran five and then eight to assume an 18-15 advantage.

Aided by treys from Kingbird and Pemberton the Warriors worked the margin to 28-23 at the break.

N-K had coughed up the ball 21 times at this point.

Red Lake moved ahead by ten early in the second half at 35-25 before a trey by Ray Schuh and a three-point play by Lundin cut the margin to 40-39.

Lundin then hit in the lane to knot the score at 43.

Red Lake ran the next four and the lead alternated between 2 and 4 for several minutes.

Tridell Beaulieu's free throw gave Red Lake a 52-49 lead in the final minute but Charlie Schuh hit in the lane. Lajeunesse then hit one of two free throws for a 53-51 lead only to have Ray Schub drive the lane for the tying bucket.

Trailing by two in the first overtime, the Mustangs ran five points on three free throws around a Charlie Schuh bucket.

But with 12 seconds to play, Kingbird was fouled on a three point attempt from the right side and calmly dropped all three charity tosses to keep the game alive.

Pemberton took over in the second extra session, hitting an early basket and adding a three point play later for a 63-59 lead.

Lajeunesse scored the final two buckets underneath to preserve the lead.

N-K ended with a 40-38 boards lead with Joe Johnsrud clearing nine and Ungerecht seven.

Lajeunesse had 14 for the Warriors.

The win was the third this season for Red Lake over N-K, the final two extremely close.

The Mustangs graduate only Lundin, Johnsrud and Ray Schuh from their tournament squad.