With a win tonight in Thief River Falls, the Cass Lake-Bena boys basketball team can reach the state tournament for the second straight season.
The Panthers take on Fertile-Beltrami in the Section 8A championship game at Ralph Engelstad Arena at 7 p.m.
Cass Lake-Bena, which has not lost a game since Feb. 2, will be going for their 15th straight victory against the Falcons.
The Panthers high-flying offense has led the way through the section tournament so far with wins over Clearbrook-Gonvick, Win-E-Mac and Fosston in the East Subsection.
The Panthers, the No. 1 seed in the subsection, had little trouble in the victories. Cass Lake-Bena defeated No. 8 Clearbrook-Gonvick 105-66, No. 4 Win-E-Mac 70-38 and No. 6 Fosston 102-52 in the subsection championship game last Thursday.
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Cass Lake-Bena enters the game with a 26-3 record and has yet to lose a game in Class A play this season. The Panthers will continue to use its high-pressure defense to key the offense, which has been led in the playoffs by Martin Wind, Nate Salscheider, Joel Salscheider at Nate Howard.
Cass Lake-Bena's opponent, Fertile-Beltrami, enters the championship game with a record of 23-5 as the second place finisher in the Pine to Prairie Conference.
The Falcons had little trouble reaching the Section 8A title game, emerging as the champion of the West Subsection as the No. 2 seed.
Fertile-Beltrami opened the playoffs with a 49-42 win over No. 7 Tri-County, followed with an 88-66 victory over No. 3 Warren-Alvarado-Oslo in the subsection semifinals and a decisive 68-45 win over top-seeded Badger/Greenbush-Middle River last Thursday.
Fertile-Beltrami is led by the trio of Kise Coauette, Cody Cauette and Jordan Solie. Kise had 23 points and 11 rebounds in the win over B/G-MR, Cody had 19 and Jordan added 11.
They will need to match those numbers and play exceptional defense to have a chance against Cass Lake-Bena, which averages 94 points per game. Fertile averages 67 points per game.
