Boys Basketball: Wingers run away against Raiders

Northfield cut the deficit to nine points 3 minutes, 4 seconds into the second half and looked to finally gain some momentum Friday against Red Wing.

The Wingers had other plans.

The Raiders scored just five points in the next eight minutes as Red Wing established a 54-28 lead and ran away with a 69-39 blowout victory at home.

“We just kind of let them back in,” Wingers’ senior guard Luke Bryant said. “If you let them stay in the game they’re going to take advantage of it. We wanted to take of that.”

Red Wing (8-5, 1-2 Missota) received balanced scoring in Friday’s win, led by Isaac Toivonen, who scored 12 of his 14 points in the first half. Ty Buck added 13 points and seven rebounds, Bryant had eight points and Ryan Boldt finished with 13 points, six rebounds and two steals, including 10 points in the second half. Jon Sevlie notched seven points, five rebounds and two steals.

“When we play really well, that’s when you feel like everybody had a nice stretch,” Red Wing head coach Doug Toivonen. “At different times, different guys were stepping up and that’s what you need to win a game.”

No player scored in double figures for Northfield (5-9, 0-3 Missota). Jacob Mathison and Luke Harris each finished with eight points to lead the Raiders.

The Wingers won the opening tip and Toivonen scored six seconds into the game but Red Wing was flat early. Northfield led 7-4 at the 14:18 mark of the first half and took advantage of some lazy defense by the Wingers.

“It kind of took us a couple minutes to get our legs under us,” Doug Toivonen said. “I would have liked us to be a little more aggressive.”

After an early timeout, Red Wing took control and never looked back. The Wingers shot 51 percent from the field for the game and led 30-16 at halftime. Red Wing knocked down 8 of 18 3-pointers.

“I thought we did a nice job of playing inside-out,” Doug Toivonen said. “We shot the ball well tonight but we didn’t shoot too many (3-pointers). I thought our 3’s came more in rhythm tonight.”

Other than the beginning of each half, the Wingers were dominant. Red Wing hit 5 3-pointers in the second half while building a 54-28 lead on a 3-pointer by Nick Powers with 6:31 left in the game. The Wingers doubled up the Raiders 58-29 little less than three minutes later on two free throws by Bryant and grabbed their biggest lead at 66-33 on another 3-pointer by Powers with 1:54 remaining in regulation.

Red Wing will attempt to bring Friday’s shooting touch again Tuesday when the Wingers travel to face Chanhassen.

Tags: boys basketball, red wing, sports, prep