By Brayden Dirks
The MMCRU Boys Basketball team had a thrilling game on Thursday, January 20th; when they played the Kingsley-Pierson Panthers in Remsen. The Royals outplayed the Panthers in every facet of the game and won 54-44.
This contest started off competitive and close and stayed that throughout the night. At halftime, the Royals led 27-25. The third ended with a score of 38-36, until the MMCRU offense exploded in the 4th. The Panthers tried to climb back but shots weren’t falling for them and were for the Royals. MMCRU finished the game strong and beat KP for the first time in school history.
Sophomore Kyler Bork led the way in points for the Royals with 17, twelve of which were scored from three. Derek Goth shot five for eight from three, and had 15 on the night. The team as a whole shot 55 percent from three, an outstanding clip that led them to this victory. Sophomore Mitchell Schnepf had a solid night with 6 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists.
Royals Head coach Cam Kuchel was very happy with the boys’ performance, “We had another first for our program this year and beat a strong Kingsley-Pierson squad. They are an athletic, strong team and we stepped up to the challenge. Our defense did a darn good job at not allowing second chances. Our shooters had a great night as well.”
The Royals then played River Valley on January 24th, and lost that game 44-38. The Royals led 25-14 at halftime. The fourth quarter is when things fell apart for the Royals. The Wolverines scored 17 points in the fourth and forced many turnovers, leading to their 44-38 win over MMCRU. The Royals shot 8 percent from three-point range, and 25 percent from the field as a whole. Kyler Bork led the way in points again with 12, and Mitchell Schnepf had nine. Coach Kuchel gave his remarks, “We unfortunately didn’t show up to play against the Wolverines. They had a great game plan to take our inside game away and make us beat them from outside and our shots simply weren’t falling that night. Time to learn from the tough loss and move on.”
The Royals played the next night against Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn Hawks in Marcus. This game was extremely important, as the two teams were vying for the three seed in the playoff district (shown above).
It took a few minutes for the Royals offense to get going, but Kyler Bork got it started with three made threes in a row. At halftime, the score was 29-27 in favor of HMS. Heading into the fourth quarter, the Royals led 47-41. With about six seconds left, the Royals led by two and the Hawks had the ball. They inbounded it to Lance Berends, who made a move to score. However, the whistle blew and, in dramatic fashion, a travel was called. Kyler Bork sealed the game with a free throw and the Royals won 61-58 to move to a 7-7 record.
As mentioned before, Kyler Bork shot very well from three, going 7 for 7, and having 24 points total, along with 7 rebounds. Derek Goth had 16 points and four threes. Mitchell Schnepf had 6 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists. Michael Peterson led the way in rebounds with 7. HMS had a powerful scoring attack from Ebel with 19 points, and Berends with 12 points. However, the Royals were able to keep the rest of the team in check to pull away with the win. Coach Kuchel was very proud of the performance, “After a tough loss to River Valley the game before, we rebounded strong against a very talented HMS team. Couldn’t be more proud of our effort in this win. From our bench energy to our hustle plays, we did all of the little things well this night.” The Royals will play the Hawks again on January 31. Their other games that week are South O’Brien on February 1st at Paullina, and against Gehlen Catholic in Marcus on the 4th.