Indians roll by Blackhawks
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MANKATO -- Sleepy Eye's smooth offensive flow and smart passing led to a 57-39 victory over Madelia Saturday in a nonconference boys basketball game at Bethany Lutheran College.
Sleepy Eye was led by Landon Wendinger, who had 19 points and seven rebounds, while Isaac Lendt added 7 points, six rebounds and five assists.
Anthony Zaleski paced the Blackhawks with 12 points, all on 3s, while Hayden Jones had 8 points.
Sleepy Eye had a focus on getting the ball to the 6-6 Wendinger down low, and he made good on their efforts.
"When we go inside-out it just opens it up," Sleepy Eye head coach Shane Heiderscheidt said. "Especially if he gets 19, 20 a game, they've got to really focus on him. Kind of an old-school game, but that's what we like to do. We like to slow the pace and pound it inside a little."
The teams traded buckets early on in the game, with Madelia holding a 16-14 lead before Lendt canned a 3 from the top of the arc to put the Indians up 17-16. That was the start of an 11-0 run by Sleepy Eye, led by Wendinger's 6, to put the Indians up 25-16.
Kyle Pietsch scored on an inbound for Madelia to stop the run. The teams traded buckets again for the rest of the half, ending the period with a 32-24 Sleepy Eye advantage.
Sleepy Eye came out of the half with a quick 6-0 run before Jones' corner 3 put the score at 38-27. Sleepy eye maintained a double-digit lead for the rest of the game, helped by working the ball around the team and working for the best shot.
"[Thursday night against Renville County West] our ball movement wasn't there and we lost," Heiderscheidt said. "We didn't look to the post like we did tonight. So we made a concerted effort to get the ball into the post and make the extra pass. You make the extra pass and you can shoot the ball in rhythm, then your shooting percentage goes up. They're young. We don't have a single senior, so we get all of them back next year and the core of them back for three, four years. It's a good little group, and I like where we're headed."
One positive for the Blackhawks was that they cut down on fouls in the second half. They put the Indians in the double bonus in the first half, but managed to stay out of the bonus in the second.
"We started moving our feet," Madelia head coach Jeff VanHee said. "We were trying way too much to make up with our hands what our feet weren't doing in the first half. The guys need to come out with a little more intensity on defense. We had a few possessions that were decent and intense, but we didn't put enough of them together."
Sleepy Eye (7-14, 3-11) will travel to play Mountain Lake Area/Comfrey in Mountain Lake on Monday. Madelia (3-17, 3-11) will host St. Clair on Tuesday.