For Jays, upset bid falls short

They play the game for a reason. On Tuesday, the Waseca High School boys' basketball team was given a scare by a Waterville-Elysian-Morristown team that had four wins all season. On Thursday, the third-seeded Bluejays were the team doing the scaring. 

Waseca's season came to an end in Mankato, on March 9 with a 71-62 setback to second-seeded to Lake Crystal-Wellcome-Memorial at Mankato East High School.

Trailing by 10 points three times throughout the first and second half, the Bluejays refused to give up. They trailed early, but fought back to tie the game at 10-10 on a three-pointer from Carson Ohnstad. 

The Knights went on a 10-point run, which the Jays answered with seven points of their own, all from the Russell brothers, Deron and Damarius. 

“We weren’t really sure where a lot of these guys would fall into the rotation at the beginning of the year, Deron being one of them,” coach Seth Anderson said. “Carson Ohnstad was one of those guys too. He came in from football season not really sure where he was gonna be. And obviously he’s had a really good year shooting the basketball… I tell our guys all the time, the margin between our best player and our 15th-best player is very, very small. There's a lot of guys that are on the bench right now who are not that far behind the guys on the floor. And that's kind of what's made practice enjoyable and competitive all year. It’s watching those guys compete for playing time.”

At intermission the Jays trailed 30-26. 

In the second half, the Jays fell behind by as many as 12, but fought back. A three-pointer from senior Tyson Reger with 7 minutes remaining, his first basket of the game, started the rally. Laird Keeton and Demarius Russell chipped in baskets to cut the lead to 48-45. 

Over the next four minutes the Jays stayed within three points, but on their only possession down three points with a chance to tie, they threw the ball away on a poor inbounds pass. Over the final two minutes the Knights hit a couple key three-pointers and made their free throws to put the game on ice. The Knights missed only one free throw all night.

“LCWM is a very athletic team,” Anderson said. “They’re really balanced, they shot the ball well and defended well. They’ve got some high level players. We had to do a good job defensively to make it a competitive game and we did a good job of that tonight. It just wasn’t quite enough. They’re ranked 5th in the state for a reason.”

The Knights moved onto the Sub-Section championship game against Maple River Tuesday night at the Taylor Center. The winner of that game moves onto the section championship game with a state tournament berth on the line. 

Bluejays who played their final game Thursday were seniors Addison Sampson, Reger, Jacari Jellum, and Alexander Honstad. 

“I don’t score a ton of points, but I try to do my best on defense, hit open shots when I’m open and find the open guy,” Reger said of his role this season. “I try to help the team. It means a lot to be a Waseca basketball player. We have a great community around us. Lots of teammates who like to pick each other up. Who are always trying to have fun while playing hard. It's fun to be here.”

Reger said his favorite memory was his game against Sibley East when he hit nine three-pointers in a row.

“That was pretty cool," he said. "That will probably stick with me forever.” 

Regar started his basketball career in Waseca as a fourth-grader and has played every year since seventh grade. 

The Bluejays return nine juniors next season, three sophomores and freshman Deron Russell. 

“I don’t think anybody would have guessed we’d be at 21 wins this season,” coach Anderson reflected. “We’ve had a lot of good wins and probably won a lot of those 50/50 games… It’s been really exciting to see how high of a level that we can play at and to watch some of these guys exceed some of the expectations that we had for them throughout the year.”

Looking back at this year and forward to next, Anderson said he was impressed with the players.

“Tyson Reger and Zach Hulscher really kind of got out of their comfort zones of being kind of soft spoken, laid back guys. They kind of stepped forward as captains for us this year. They've done a really good job leading with energy and leading with positivity every single day, and at practice. And Demarius  Russell is just a competitor. And then Jacari Jellum is kind of our fourth captain, and we always call him the captain of the bench, because he is just the most energetic, positive guy that we've had on our team all year. Going to practice every day with this group has been absolutely enjoyable, because they just worked their butts off and they listen and they try to do what we're asking every single day. And at the end of the day, as a coach, it's hard to, it's hard to ask for more than what they've been able to do in that regard.”

The Bluejays ended their season with a record of 21-7. They were coached by Anderson, assisted by Austin Nagael, Brian Rupe, Richard Guse, Matt Olsen, and Tim Anderson. Student managers were Kaden Pierce and Karley Hamilton.