FHS BOYS JUST MISS OUT ON SODAK 16

A wild sequence of events late nearly resulted in an improbable come-from-behind victory for the Freeman Public boys in the third round of the Region 4B basketball tournament in Hurley Friday night, March 1. Instead, third-seed Centerville celebrated a thrilling 61-60 win over second-seed Freeman, improved to 14-8 and advanced to this week’s SoDak 16 on Tuesday, where it lost to No. 3 Castlewood (19-3) 82-51.

The Flyers, who had defeated Menno three nights earlier to advance to the third round, finished their best season in more than a decade with a 14-8 mark and can chalk up Friday’s loss to a first half in which they missed more shots from close range than they made, lost the battle of the boards — badly — and struggled defending the Tornadoes’ ability to get to the rim and score.

Centerville led 42-28 at the half.

But Freeman rallied, winning the third quarter 13-8 to make it 50-41 and set up a frenzy of a fourth quarter in which the Flyers continued to close the gap until finally taking a 58-57 lead on two Tate Sorensen free throws with 37 seconds left.

Here’s what happened next.

• On their ensuing possession the Tornadoes set up in the half-court and missed what would have been a go-ahead shot that was well defended by junior Sawyer Wipf, but Centerville sophomore Alec Austin cleaned up an offensive rebound and scored from underneath to give his team a 59-58 with 5.3 seconds to play.
• The Flyers — tasked with going the length of the court — responded with a drawn-up play in which the inbounds pass went from Rocky Ammann three-fourths of the way down the court to Tate Sorensen who then passed it to a cutting Luke Peters, who never gained control of the ball and lost it out of bounds.
• Centerville was then fouled on its next possession and made two free throws with 0.7 seconds left to make it a 61-58 lead.
• But with Freeman inbounding the ball for a desperation attempt at a game-tying three-pointer, the Tornadoes were called for a technical foul for having six players on the court. Luke Peters connected on both of his free throws to make it a 61-60 game, and Peters then got off a 20-foot shot on the ensuing inbounds pass that would have won the game, but it hit the back of the rim and bounced away.

Ammann and Peters both had 17 points for Freeman while Tate Sorensen added 14.

“It was a grind-it-out, rugged game,” head coach Lance Friesen said. “I think about what I said — if we don’t shoot well — and there we were. We didn’t do that well. We didn’t do a lot of things well, especially rebound.”

The Flyers were 19-for-59 overall from the field and just 3-for-16 from three-point range, and at one point were behind in the rebounding battle 22-6. But a more urgent defensive effort in the second half contained the Tornadoes’ ability to get to the rim and score and Freeman was able to slowly chip away at the lead to set up the thrilling finish.

And while there are plenty of “what ifs” to think about, Friesen says the game summary is quite simple: “We had a great second half,” he said. “Great courage, they never gave up, but we didn’t deserve to win.”

The mood in the locker room after the game was sad, Friesen said, as the team says goodbye to two seniors — Rocky Ammann and Dillon Podzimek.

“The growth of the program is directly related to both seniors,” he said. “The one plays more minutes, but they both have impacted the culture dramatically and we are a better program because of them, and we are in debt there.”

Friesen, who is in his third year as head coach at Freeman Public, said Ammann and Podzimek set an example to keep fighting through tough times and work to get better — something that helped the head coach stay strong.

“I thanked them because, as a coach, the first two years were kind of hard and you second guess yourself when your adjustments or what you’re trying to do don’t always result in winning on the scoreboard,” he said. “So I thanked them for their effort and their toughness to turn it around; they gave me back some confidence to believe in what we’re doing again, and in return gained some confidence themselves.”

And, as tough as the loss to Centerville was, Friesen believes it will help set the Flyers up for what should be must-see basketball in the years to come.

“It was fun to see those kids playing in a game that’s that loud and that intense and how far they’ve come,” he said. “I don’t like the ending, but I like the grittiness and the fact that we didn’t fold. That will help us in the future.”

In addition to two starting juniors and two starting sophomores, the Flyers will return eight freshmen and eighth graders — four of which saw considerable playing time on this year’s varsity squad.

“The more we develop physically both in strength and agility, the easier these big games will be,” Friesen said. “If we keep working hard, we’ll be right there.”

Box score

Rocky Ammann: 17 points, 9 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 blocked shot; Luke Peters: 17  points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists; Tate Sorensen: 14 points, 6 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal; Luke Miller: 9 points, 3 rebounds; Tayden Kerrigan: 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal; Sawyer Wipf: 2 rebounds, 1 steal; Tannen Auch: 1 rebound