THIEF RIVER FALLS - The Cass Lake-Bena boys basketball team struggled early, but bounced back in the second half for a 70-38 victory over Win-E-Mac Tuesday night in the Section 8A East Subsection semifinal at Ralph Engelstad Arena.
The Panthers, the No. 1 seed in the subsection and No. 2 ranked team in Minnesota Class A basketball, advanced to Friday's subsection final at 8:15 p.m. in Thief River Falls against No. 6 Fosston, which defeated No. 2 Red Lake 60-58 in Tuesday's nightcap.
The winner of Friday's subsection final advances to the Section 8A championship game Tuesday, with the winner of that game moving on to the state basketball tournament.
Martin Wind led the Panthers with 18 points. Nate Salscheider had 15, Joel Salscheider 14 and Nate Howard 10.
Chandler Burns had 15 points for Win-E-Mac and was the only Patriot to reach double-digit scoring.
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The Patriots caused problems for the Panthers early, forcing turnovers and keeping Cass Lake-Bena from pulling away.
"They were moving around a lot and messing up our offense," Cass Lake-Bena senior Joe Wilson said. "In the second half we calmed down and played our game."
Win-E-Mac, the No. 4 seed in the subsection, was able to stay in the game with strong 3-point shooting. The Patriots had just six field goals in the game, but finished with eight 3-pointers.
Howard was the leading man on the glass with 11 rebounds for the Panthers. Joel Salscheider had eight steals and Wind had seven assists.
After the game, Cass Lake-Bena head coach Dan Ninham expressed his concern over ball handling and control.
"It's not too often you get 28 turnovers and still win by 32 points," he said. "You can't just hold the ball, stop and then move. We've been able to get away with it for 10 years but we're not going to be able to get away with it here."
The Panthers opened the game with a 10-2 run over the first seven minutes to take an early lead. Cass Lake-Bena was able to build that margin to 10 points throughout the first half, leading 19-9 with 8:05 remaining and 27-17 with 3:57 remaining.
It was never a comfortable margin as the turnovers always seemed to keep Cass Lake-Bena from opening up the game.
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Wilson offered an unlikely explanation for the first half struggles.
"I think we were nervous and they took us out of our game plan," he said. "We say we're not nervous, but I think we were."
Howard disagreed with that characterization and had a different reason for the 16 first half turnovers.
"They were just able to get back on defense a lot quicker," he said. "At halftime, coach just told us to hold on to the ball and we got fired up."
Another challenge was depth perception. The basketball court was set up inside the hockey rink at the arena, with the baskets just inside the blue lines. Howard said the space between the baskets and the seats behind the end boards made shooting more difficult.
The Panthers had a 32-20 lead at half and started to take over the game with strong defense and strong post play. Cass Lake-Bena led 39-26 five minutes into the half and went on a 14-0 run to take a 53-26 led with 9:38 remaining in the game.
Cass Lake-Bena led 57-29 with 6:36 to play and had its first 30-point lead at 3:51 with a 64-33 advantage.
In Section 8A West Subsection games Tuesday at the University of Minnesota-Crookston, No. 1 Badger/Greenbush-Middle River survived No. 5 Stephen-Argyle 69-66 in overtime and No. 2 Fertile-Beltrami played No. 3 Warren-Alvarado-Oslo.
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Tuesday's victory marked Cass Lake-Bena's 13th straight win and improved the Panthers to 25-3 overall this season. Rounding out Cass Lake-Bena scoring was Wilson with 7, Jeromy O'Brien 2, Tyler Trosen 2 and and Ryan Lemon 2. The Panthers had five 3-pointers in the game; Joel Salscheider had three and Wind had two.
The Patriots ended their season 16-10, which included a defeat of Blackduck in the subsection quarterfinals.
For Cass Lake-Bena to win their 14th straight and make a deeper push into the playoffs, Howard knows what needs to happen.
"We just need more fundamentals and need to be more fundamentally sound," he said.
