Panthers impress on both ends of the court; Zick leads the way with 34 points
The TMB boys’ basketball team proved what everyone already assumed Tuesday against Red Rock Central — that they can shoot and score with the best of them. But they also showed that they can do a little damage on the other side of the court.
Against a ball-hawking defense, the Falcons shot just 33% from the field, as TMB opened its season with a convincing 85-57 win.
“Effort-wise, I was really happy,” TMB coach Ryan Kruse said. “We played especially hard on defense. It was just an overall good effort — I think that was the difference in the game. For the first time out, I was pretty happy.”
The game was tight from the start, but it didn’t take long for TMB to rekindle its perimeter magic that carried them a year ago. After Griffin Zick put the Panthers up 12-10 with two baseline drives to the hoop, the Panthers got threes from Jackson Kruse, Connor Lanoue, Parker Kline, Aiden Sanow and Emery Xiong to go on a decisive 21-4 run over 5 minutes to take command of the game.
“We need that in our game,” Kruse said. “We’ve got to hit our threes, and we did a good job of it in that stretch.”
Xiong would later hit another three with 3:54 left in the first half, and Zick nailed one over a minute later to put TMB ahead 43-23 as halftime loomed.
The Falcons had no answer for Zick, who played a predominant role last year as a third option for the Panthers. The senior was accurate from the outside, and when he drove to the lane, all the Falcons could do was foul him. He ended up going to the line 13 times, connecting on 11 free throws as part of his 34-point outburst.
“I had no idea Grif had that many points,” said Kruse, who praised his entire backcourt. “I honestly thought Emery was our leading scorer for a while, and I looked up and saw he had something like 30. And Emery hit some of those threes in that stretch; he had a really good last couple days of practice. For him to translate that into the game was awesome. And I think Connor, he’s going to be our floor general — he’s got to take care of the ball for us, score for us and set other guys up, too. Those three did a good job in the backcourt today.”
Xiong, who scored 11 points, started TMB off on the right foot in the second half, hitting another three as well as a twopointer. That ignited another Panther run. Those points were much needed, as RRC was able to pick away at its deficit and pull to within 13 at the 7:33 mark of the second half.
However, two free throws by Connor Lanoue, a pair of buckets by Zick and a three by Carson Lanoue lifted TMB to a 7553 advantage.
A basket by Kruse, two more from Zick and another three by Carson Lanoue were all part of a late 21-6 run.
“We worked together as a team, just how we needed to,” Zick said. “First game, you don’t really know how that’s going to go, but we clicked.”
Connor Lanoue and Xiong finished with 13 and 11 points, respectively, and Kruse finished with nine points and 11 rebounds.
TMB crushed the Falcons on the glass, 48-20, as Sanow pulled down 10 boards, and Sy Sanders eight. Zick grabbed seven rebounds, and Sanders also dished out six assists.
The Panthers had 24 helpers on their 29 baskets.
“Sy is really good down low at kicking it out and finding guys,” Kruse said. “I thought all the guys did a good job of driving and kicking it out.”
For the game, TMB connected on 40% of its three-point attempts, with Xiong leading the way with three from deep.
“We all have to create for others, and that will open up our game,” said Zick. “(Sy) does a good job distributing from the ‘big man’ spot.”
While the three-pointers were falling, the Falcons had their hands more than full offense. RRC struggled at times to get its half-court offense set up, and struggled from deep as well, making just seven threes on the night.
“In practices, we always emphasize defense,” said Zick. “That’s how Kruse is, and I think we’re all starting to get into that mode. We know we’re not always going to score 80 points a night, so we’ve got to hold them to as few points as possible.”
The Panthers (1-0) will play their second straight home game Friday against Renville County West. Their first road game will be at Lakeview on Dec. 9.
• Kline and Kruse scored 13 and 12 points, respetively, as the TMB B-squad throttled RRC, 57-11. Talon Brinkley added 10 points, Carson Lanoue had nine rebounds, and Kruse dished out seven assists.
RRC 29 28 — 57 TMB 43 42 — 86 RRC
Determan 1-4 1-5 4, J. Therkielsen 3-8 2-2 9, Stavnes 9-25 2-2 23, Batalden 2-9 0-0 6, M. Erickson 1-5 2-4 4, Imker 4-4 1-1 9, C. Therkielsen 1-8 0-0 2. Totals: 21-63 8-14 57. Three-pointers: 7-23. Assists 12. Rebounds: 20. Blocks: 2. Steals: 10. Turnovers: 24 TMB
Sanders 1-3 1-2 3, Zick 11-17 11-13 34, Carson Lanoue 2-2 0-0 6, Connor Lanoue 4-8 4-4 13, Xiong 4-10 0-0 11, Kruse 4-5 0-0 9, Sanow 1-8 1-2 4, Kline 1-1 0-0 3. Lightfoot 1-3 0-1 2. Totals: 29-57 17-22 85. Assists: 24 (Sanders 6, Kruse 6, Snow 4, Zick 3, Carson Lanoue, Connor Lanoue, Xiong, Kline). Rebounds: 48 (Kruse 11, Sanow 10, Sanders 8, Zick 7, Lightfoot 5, Connor Lanoue 4, Xiong 2, Brinkley). Blocks: 3 (Zick, Kruse, Lightfoot). Steals: 8 (Sanders 2, Sanow 2, Zick, Connor Lanoue, Xiong, Kline).
