EFFORT OF ‘PASSION’ FALLS JUST SHORT
JEREMY WALTNER – PUBLISHER
The Freeman Academy/Marion boys saved their best game of the season for the biggest game of their lives and nearly upset top-seed and Class B’s No. 5 team in the process.
Facing Viborg-Hurley Friday night, March 5 in third and final round of the Region 5B Tournament at Freeman Public, the No. 3-seed Bearcats took the Cougars to overtime, only to fall short in the final four-minute frame. Viborg-Hurley survived FA/Marion 66-59 to advance to the SoDak 16 with a 16-5 record. The Bearcats finish their season 15-7.
After the game — after the team had paid tribute to junior Quincy Blue, who had surpassed 1,000 points in the first half, and Payton Arbach, the only senior on the team — head coach Austin Unruh knelt on the court near where he had coached the game of his life. He stared blankly ahead, chin quivering, water filling his eyes. He probably doesn’t remember the number of people who came up to him and said something or put a hand on a shoulder. He probably doesn’t remember because he was so caught up in what had just happened.
“When you love the game, when you love the players, emotion comes naturally,” he said a short while later. “We talk about playing with passion just about every day, and if that’s not a picture of passion, I don’t know what is.”
Later, Unruh said the game might have been the most fun he’s ever had as both a player and a coach, and that includes playing in a state tournament as a player.
Those who saw the game can certainly understand why.
A large crowd filled both sides of the Freeman High School gym for the high-stakes game, just as they had done for the prior contest in which No. 4 Bridgewater-Emery gave No. 1 Canistota a run for its money, only to lose 49-43.
“It’s not good for Covid, but it was good for atmosphere,” Unruh said. “We missed this; it feels good to be back in it, and boy were there moments.”
A look at the quarter scores is all that is needed to know just how close the game was.
FA/Marion trailed the Cougars 13-11 after one quarter, 25-24 at the half and 42-38 going into the fourth period. But the Bearcats had the edge in the final eight minutes, taking their first lead of the game at 49-48 with 3:30 to play and again at 55-54 with 35 seconds left.
“Two very, very good basketball teams battling,” Unruh said. “Four very good basketball teams battling. Is Region 5 the best boys region in the state? Possibly. It sure looked like it tonight.”
Unruh wasn’t surprised by what he saw from his team, like the career game for sophomore Connor Epp, who dazzled with 24 points, eight assists, five steals and five rebounds. His ability to get to the hoop was aided by Viborg-Hurley’s defense keying on leading scorers Quincy Blue and Thalen Schroeder.
“They had to press out with their two best defenders, which left the lane open for Connor to exploit,” he said.
He wasn’t surprised by the defensive effort from Schroeder, who was forced to contend with Gradee Sherman, whose big, 6 foot 5 inch presence makes him a scoring and rebounding monster. Sherman finished with 16 points and 12 rebounds before fouling out late, but it could have been so much more.
“Thalen was a huge reason we were in that game,” Unruh said. “His effort on defense was the X factor that goes under the radar.”
And he wasn’t surprised by Blue’s 22 points, including that three-pointer in the first half that put the junior over the 1,000-point mark, and another late in the game that gave the Bearcats a one-point lead.
He wasn’t surprised, because the team was peaking at the right time.
“We were healthy, we were connected, we were committed, and as a team that’s really when we started to gel at practice,” he said, looking back on the last three weeks. “And it really showed; internally we knew we were playing our best basketball and this is what you’re supposed to get on the last game of the year. I couldn’t be prouder.
Looking back on the game, Unruh feels badly for Arbach, who found himself in foul trouble and, like Sherman, ended up fouling out late in the game.
“Tough way to go out for a senior,” he said, “who felt like he didn’t get a chance to contribute like he wanted.”
He thinks about the game being tied at 55-55 with 28 seconds left and the chance the Bearcats had to reclaim the lead, and also Viborg-Hurley’s inbounds play under the basket with 0.3 seconds left in regulation — how the Cougars actually scored as time expired but officials waved it off because rules state with that little time left, it cannot be a catch and shoot, but rather a tip.
And Unruh still gets a thrill on thinking about the alleyoop to Schroeder that ended up being an and-one that trimmed Viborg-Hurley’s lead to 44-43 with 7 minutes to play and brought down the house.
“We put that in practice earlier this week and it went just as planned at a big moment,” Unruh says. “We were going to run it earlier in the game and I’m glad we saved it for when we did.”
All of it added up to a classic that won’t soon be forgotten, as disappointing as the loss was.
“I told them that this isn’t an end, not by any means,” said Unruh, thinking about the return of Blue, Epp, Schroeder, Marion junior guard Donte Butler and sophomore Matthew Hagan, a Freeman Academy mid-season transfer from Sioux Falls. “We don’t know what the future of the program is, but it’s not an end. This is a start of something bigger than us and the springboard for next year.”
