FREEMAN BOYS SETTLE FOR SIXTH IN THE ‘B’
They arrived in Aberdeen sixth and on Sunday they will return to Freeman sixth.
Facing a hot-handed Wall team and its relentless man-to-man press that forced 25 turnovers, the Freeman High School boys dropped the consolation championship to Wall 79-67 at the Barnett Center Saturday afternoon, March 22.
The sixth-seeded Flyers finish the 2025 Class B state basketball tournament 1-2 and with sixth place and a final season record of 20-6.
Fifth seed Wall finished the tournament fifth and as the consolation champions. The Eagles finish the season 19-7.
Head coach Lance Friesen said, not only did the Eagles put the pressure on the Flyers with their full court man-to-man press, but they’d implement occasional traps and switches that caused fits, “and they did it really well, they’ve got really good athletes, and their weight room must be awesome.”
Friesen said he was disappointed in Freeman’s inability to take care of the ball; 15 of the team’s 25 turnovers came in the first half.
“I want to give them credit, but at the same time we did not control the controllables,” he said. “We turned it over without them making a play, so a lot of them were preventable. Some of that happens when you’re playing hard — I get that — but it wasn’t a great day taking care of the ball. Defend, rebound and take care of the ball you win games and, to be honest, it was hard to do all three phases of that (against Wall).”
Wall led by as many as 20 points midway through the third quarter but Freeman trimmed the led to 10 in the fourth quarter, but the Eagles lead was too big to overcome.
Wall shot 51.7% from the field, including eight three-pointers that kept the momentum on its side. Freeman shot well, too, connecting on 58% from the field — including five three-pointers — but Wall got up 58 shots to Freeman’s 48, and the turnovers were the story of the game.
Junior Tate Sorensen, who was named to the all-tournament team, led the way with 27 points while freshman Tayden Kerrigan had 10 points. Sophomore Oliver Waltner chipped in 10 points in 12 minutes off the bench and also led the team with nine rebounds.
Freeman will lose two seniors who saw regular playing time — starter Sawyer Wipf and reserve Christopher Aasen — as well as Caden Waltner. Friesen said all were key players on this year’s team in various ways.
“They knew their roles and they all helped us get here,” he said. “They were all part of this team’s success. Sometimes what’s lost in the shuffle is the change in culture also means there’s competition, which means you’ve got to go earn it. And in the end, earning it — even if your role isn’t always what you want — is still more valuable than getting handed something.”
And the Flyers will return a ton. Sorensen and Luke Peters will be back as seniors and Tannen Auch and Waltner, who both saw important minutes in the game against Wall, will return as juniors. And Kerrigan, Luke Miller and David Walter will be back as sophomores, along with others that are part of a deep and talented Class of 2028; Kerrigan and Walter were regular starters during the season and Miller stepped in as part of the first five because of Walter’s illness the last two games of the state tournament.
“We need to have a good offseason.” Friesen said. “We’re going to have to have a give a little more, keep working on our overall team quickness, and shooting is going to be valuable. They need to not be happy — not be content. We need to leave no doubt that our effort and our determination is there to get back and to place higher.”
