A solid effort at both ends of the court lifted the Brainerd Warriors to a 79-55 dismantling of the St. Cloud Tech Tigers in a Central Lakes Conference game Thursday night at Brainerd High School.
Jack Sauer pumped in 23 points, Marcus Comstock contributed 14 points and 10 rebounds and Jagar Hanson added 10 points as Brainerd avenged a 92-64 beating administered at Tech Dec. 10 in the second game of the season.
“It was a big section and conference win after what they did to us down there early in the year,” Warriors coach Scott Stanfield said. “You can see the improvement we’ve made.”
Brainerd improved to 5-4 in the CLC, 9-7 overall while Tech slipped to 6-3 and 9-8.
“Offensively, we were really, really good,” Stanfield said. “They played a 2-3 zone. We worked the ball around, got good shots, and hit our threes early.
“And, we had some high-low action with Jagar and Marcus. Jagar hit three high post jump shots early. That forced them to come up higher, and we were able to go down low to Marcus.”
Brainerd led 38-27 at the half and outscored the Tigers 41-28 in the second.
“Defensively, to hold them to 55 was a great effort,” Stanfield said. “We worked hard in practice on getting into our guys, moving our feet, trying to stop penetration and contesting shots.
“The kids brought it tonight. We had great energy. It was just a great defensive game.
“Every kid who played really played well for us.”
St. Cloud Tech 27 28 — 55
Brainerd 38 41 — 79
TECH
Kevin Heysse 8, Andy Foley 15, Philip Amundson 3, Alex Matchinsky 14, Luke Zwiener 10, Jay Kedrowski 3, Paul Kaczor 2.
BRAINERD
Blake Peterson 7, Tony Sauer 1, Jack Sauer 23, Taylor Huber 2, Riley Kline 7, Ian Haug 7, Marcus Comstock 14, Chris Bowman 8, Jagar Hanson 10. FT 16-23. Conference: 5-4. Overall: 9-7. Next: host Alexandria 7:30 p.m. Monday.
