Ekstrom engineers Truman's victory
Jason Wilcox - Sentinel Sports WriterArticle Photos
TRUMAN - Before Friday night's game, Truman boys hoops coach Tim Jager was pondering whether to start Clayton Feis or Jordan Selnes at a guard.
It turns out, Jager would have made the right decision either way.
Feis was coming in with an injured knee from the Bluejays' last game, but Jager decided to go with Feis and he responded with 16 points, eight assists, five rebounds, three steals and a blocked shot to help the Bluejays to a 72-60 Valley Conference victory over the Alden-Conger Knights in Truman.
"He came to play," Jager said of Feis.
Selnes ended up coming off the bench to score 13 points with two other Bluejays reaching double figures in scoring.
"They all came together and played as a team tonight. ... They just had fun, that was the main thing," said Jager.
Levi Ekstrom proved to have the most fun of the Bluejays, leading the team with 21 points, eight rebounds and four assists.
Caleb Thate was the fourth Bluejay to reach double figures with 12 points to complement six rebounds, three steals and two assists.
Brady Shanks came close to making it five Truman players with double figures as he scored eight points to go along with five rebounds, four assists and two steals.
A back-and-forth game started to go the way of the Bluejays at roughly the halfway point of the first half.
Ekstrom's 3-pointer from Selnes from the corner with nine minutes to play broke a 14-all tie and started Truman down the path to victory as the Bluejays never gave the lead back to the Knights.
Selnes later sank a deep baseline jumper at 8:35, before Feis' steal and layup combination put the home team ahead 21-16 wtih 7:35 left in the half.
Back-to-back Selnes and Feis treys from the left and right wing, respectively, gave Truman a 27-16 at 6:15.
However, the Knights duplicated the feat their next two drives down the court as Lucas Kleinschrodt and Michael Bernal sank consecutive 3-pointers, to whittle their deficit to 27-22 with 3:45 left in the half.
But a 7-0 Bluejay run ended up being all the team would need to stay comfortably ahead for good.
Ekstrom's perfect bounce pas to Feis in the lane worked for two points, before Austin Maloney scored off an inbounds pass from Shanks at 2:20 for a 32-22 lead.
Two Ekstrom free throws then gave Truman a 34-22 lead.
Kleinschrodt then attempted to singlehandedly bring the visitors back with a corner triple before getting loose inside off a Travis Marth pass with two seconds remaining, making the score 34-28 in favor of Truman.
But the Bluejays were not done as Feis quickly drove the ball upcourt and launched a 3 from two feet behind the arc that swished home at the buzzer for a 37-28 halftime advantage.
The Knights were only able to get within six points the rest of the second half.
Kleinschrodt led the visitors with 21 points, eight rebounds, three assists and two steals, while Marth scored 20 with six assists, three rebounds and two steals.
Spencer Niebuhr added 14 points with 10 rebounds and two steals for the Knights.
Truman (1-4, 1-2 Valley) plays host to St. James on Tuesday night, while Alden-Conger (1-2, 1-2) hits the road to Grand Meadow on Tuesday.
Blue Earth Area 70, St. Peter 50 - Nick Lee scored 19 points and added eight rebounds to lead the Bucs to a 70-50 South Central Conference win over the Saints on Friday night in Blue Earth.
Riley Holmseth contributed 18 points and six rebounds to Blue Earth Area's winning performance, while teammate Nate Carr supplied 13 points, four assists and four steals.
Brodie Raymond led the Saints with 22 points.
Blue Earth Area outscored St. Peter by a 40-31 margin during the second half to extend its 30-19 lead at intermission.
The Bucs were 23 of 48 from the floor and 19 of 30 at the free throw line, while the Saints were 19 of 58 and 5 of 8, respectively.
Blue Earth Area (3-0, 1-0 SCC) plays host to Fairmont on Tuesday night.
SP 19-31-50
BEA 30-40-70
Martin County West 62, Le Center 53 - Jake Trio scored 17 points and added six rebounds to lead the Mavericks to a 62-53 Valley Conference win over the Wildcats on Friday night in Le Center.
Conner Grupe added 15 points and seven assists, while Mitch Olson tallied 14 points, five rebounds and two assists. Steven Zehms contributed 10 points and eight rebounds to the Mavericks' winning cause.
The Mavericks were 27 of 42 from the floor and 8 of 16 at the line.
Danny Perez led the Wildcats (3-3) with 12 points, while J.B. Calixte had 10 points.
Martin County West (4-1, 2-1) plays New Ulm at 3 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 29, at the Windom Holiday Tournament.
MCW 27-35-62
LeCenter 26-27-53
Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial 65, Martin Luther 53 - Kevin Masters scored 19 points and Brian Jacobs scored 18 to lead the visiting Knights to a 65-53 Valley Conference win over the host Knights on Friday in Northrop.
Josh Sobbabend had nine points, 12 rebounds and four steals for LCWM.
Parker Weihe topped Martin Luther with 15 points, while Bowdie Bents had 12 points.
Martin Luther was 23 of 51 on field goals and 3 of 9 on free throws, while LCWM was 26 of 54 and 10 of 19, respectively.
Martin Luther (2-3, 0-2) travels to Nicollet on Monday night for a rescheduled game.
LCWM 32-33-65
M. Luther 19-34-53
Armstrong-Ringsted 75, Twin River Valley 28 - Tyler Feddersen scored 20 points and grabbed four steals to lead the Mustangs to a 75-28 win over the Thunder on Friday in Armstrong.
Spencer Clausen added 15 points, four assists and five steals to the Mustang cause, while Craig Tigges added 13 points and seven rebounds.
Matt Larson pulled down eight rebounds, Evan Hagebock tallied three assists and Brett Thackery had five steals.
The Mustangs were 29 of 47 from the floor and 12 of 21 on free throws.
Armstrong-Ringsted (1-3, 1-1) hits the road to play Harris-Lake Park today.
TRV 6- 6-13- 3-28
A-R 15-21-25-14-75
Harris-Lake Park 60, North Sentral Kossuth 57 - The Wolves scored a 60-57 Corn Belt Conference win over the Eagles on Friday night in Lake Park, Iowa.
Travis Larson led the Eagles with 20 points and three assists, while Drew Doocy added 11 points, four rebounds, three assists and three steals. Trent Bruhn contributed eight points, 10 rebounds and five blocks to the Eagle cause.
Brady Blocker scored seven points for NSK, while Tony Christ added five points and three rebounds. Grant Laubenthal scored four points and had five assists.
The Eagles were 20 of 50 from the floor and were 4 of 7 at the foul line.
North Sentral Kossuth (3-4, 3-1) plays Twin River Valley on Tuesday, Jan. 5, in Bode, Iowa.
