NRHEG Forces Overtime with Buzzer Beater, but Falls to Cathedral

NRHEG rallied from a second-half deficit and sent the game to overtime with a buzzer-beating three from Benji Lundberg but lost 70-59 to St. Cloud Cathedral at the boys basketball state tournament.

The Panthers trailed the Crusaders 37-27 with about 13 minutes left in the second half of their state quarterfinal Class AA game at Williams Arena at the University of Minnesota. Lundberg hit consecutive shots to trim the deficit to 37-31. Tyler Raimann scored the next six points to pull the game even at 37-37 with 10 minutes remaining, as indicated by the Minnesota State High School League game recap.

NRHEG went ahead by one point a couple of times after that, but found themselves down 54-51 after a pair of Mitchell Plombon free throws with 5.5 seconds left. Lundberg took the inbound and dribbled past half court before launching a shot as time expired that dropped through the basket to tie the game at 54-54 and force overtime.

By that time however, Oakley Baker had fouled out. The Panthers also lost Tyler Raimann, Brady Agrimson and Jack Schultz to fouls in overtime. Cathedral connected on 12 of 16 free throw attempts in the extra session to win 70-59. Michael Schaeffer scored six of his 33 points in overtime. Plombon ended with 25.

Lundberg led NRHEG with 18 points. Baker scored 16. Raimann added 13. Chad Agrimson drilled three treys in the second half for game total of nine points. NRHEG (28-3) will face Breckenridge at 8PM Thursday at Concordia of St. Paul in the consolation semifinals on Kat Kountry 105FM.