Boys basketball: Role players fuel Albany to 80-57 state quarterfinal win over Pelican Rapids

MINNEAPOLIS When you combine a bunch of really physical football players with two really skilled basketball players, it makes for a tough team to beat.That's certainly the case with Albany, Class 2A's top-ranked boys basketball team.

The undefeated and top-seeded Albany Huskies' physicality and defensive pressure helped them roll to an 80-57 Class 2A state tournament quarterfinal win over eighth-seeded Pelican Rapids on Tuesday, March 18, at Williams Arena.

The Huskies (30-0) advance to play Caledonia (29-2) in the Class 2A state semifinals on Friday, March 21, at Williams Arena.

Caledonia beat Minnehaha Academy 72-56 in a quarterfinal game on Tuesday night to move on.Albany is typically led by senior guard Zeke Austin and senior forward Sam Hondl.

But the two standouts struggled at times for the Huskies against Pelican Rapids.Austin finished 3-of-11 shooting and had 14 points.

Hondl battled foul trouble, but still managed to get 16 points, seven assists and five rebounds.

But it was the football players who made the difference.

Starting junior guard Braeden Justin had 11 of his 14 points in the second half and senior forward Ethan Meyer had 10 of his 12 points in the first half for the Huskies."It's big when we can have Braeden step up like that and hit outside shots," Austin said.

"It gives us momentum and hypes up the crowd.

It doesn't put as much pressure on Sam and I to score."Meyer and Justin were both standout wide receivers and defensive backs for the Albany football team that advanced to the Class 3A state semifinals this past fall.

Meyer, a St.

Cloud LIVE All-Area football team selection, has committed to play for the Concordia-Moorhead football team beginning in August.

"We know Sam and Zeke are going to get a lot of attention," Meyer said.

"We know they're going to do their thing and find us if they get doubled or caught up.

But our biggest thing is defense and hounding the ball at all times.

Just putting pressure on them and making it hard for them on every play."Albany outrebounded the Vikings 31-23 and held them to 43.3 percent shooting.

The Huskies also forced the Vikings (24-7) into 15 turnovers while committing only 10 of their own.Meanwhile, the Huskies shot a blistering 56.6 percent from the floor and went 8-of-20 from three-point range.

"Getting contributions from Braeden and Ethan is huge," Albany head coach Cory Schlagel said.

"Braeden is always sitting open on the perimeter.

It's usually his guy who is helping on Zeke and Sam.

Ethan is getting dump downs because they're helping on Sam.

He's got a knack for finding open spaces when Zeke gets doubled."Braeden's job is knock down shots on the perimeter.

If he doesn't knock down those shots, they don't have to honor him.

That's a huge thing for us when guys like him can knock down those threes."Albany built its first double-digit lead at 23-13 with 8:36 to play in the first half following a three-point play from senior point guard Elliott Burnett, another Albany football standout.

From there, the Huskies outscored Pelican Rapids 24-13 the rest of the first half to take a 47-26 halftime lead.

"Most of us have been together since August playing sports," Meyer said.

"It adds a lot of comfort.

It just seems like we know what each of us is going to do out there."The Vikings started the second half on a brief 4-0 run to make it 47-30, but Meyer squashed any momentum by scoring on a high-low pass from Burnett to push the lead to 49-32."The first half was fantastic for us," Schlagel said.

"We were slugging around in the first five or six minutes.

We played good defense, got up and down in transition and executed our offense in the half court.

It was good to set that tone in the first 18 minutes." Pelican Rapids got as close as 51-36 before a 10-2 run by Albany thanks to five points from Justin put the margin back up to 61-38 with 9:22 to play.

Justin hit two more three-pointers the rest of the way when Austin and Hondl faced double-teams to further aggravate Pelican Rapids.Hondl and Albany's frontcourt had a tougher time with 6-foot-7 Pelican Rapids center Jack Welch, who finished with a game-high 29 points.

However, Welch was limited to one rebound in the game."(Welch) is a good player.

I'm guessing he was motivated to play against Sam," Schlagel said.

"He looked good on tape, but he hadn't been that aggressive.

Sam has a lot of accolades and it's good for him to have this kind of a challenge.

He's going on to play college basketball (at Minnesota State-Moorhead)."Dudes are going to be coming after him.

The same with Zeke.

It was good for them to feel that.

The teams that are coming up next are going to be even better."Austin, who is headed to play at Jamestown (N.D.) University next fall, is looking forward to seeing Caledonia in the state semifinals.His uncle, Brad King, is the Warriors' head coach and he has three cousins on Caledonia's roster.

Those cousins include Grant King, Mason King and Reid Klug.

Albany has never played Caledonia before."I've always wanted to play them," Austin said with a mischievous smile.

"It's going to be fun.

It's personal for me."Pelican Rapids 26 31 57 Albany 47 33 80PELICAN RAPIDS Jack Welch 29, Ethan Isaman 5, Miguel Torres 8, Brody Syverson 5, Grady Larson 7 (9 rebounds), Ahmed Biixi 3.

Totals: FG 23-53, FT 5-9, 3-PT 6-20, REB 25, TO 15, PF 16.ALBANY Sam Hondl 16 (7 assists, 5 rebounds), Zeke Austin 14 (5 rebounds), Braeden Justin 14, Ethan Meyer 12 (6 rebounds), Elliott Burnett 9 (8 assists, 7 rebounds), Bennett Hylla 7, Brady Rueter 2, Jake Buttweiler 2, Ashton Olson 4.

Totals: FG 30-53, FT 12-14, 3-PT 8-20, REB 32, TO 10, PF 16.Points off turnovers: Albany 20, PR 7; Points in the paint: Albany 38, PR 32; Second-chance points: PR 8, Albany 6; Fastbreak points: Albany 20, PR 7; Bench points: Albany 15, PR 3.

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