Cardinals carry on tradition

MOORHEAD -- Dustin Hjelmeland and his Staples-Motley boys' basketball teammates grew up watching former Cardinal standouts like Blaine Joerger, Erik Kelly, Dan Otteson and Chris Heier play in three state tournaments.

Now it's the former Cardinals' turn to watch this year's Cardinals play at state.

S-M qualified for its first state tournament since 1997 by defeating the Crookston Pirates 56-45 in the Section 8AA championship game Friday at Concordia College.

The victory sends S-M to the state quarterfinals 8 p.m. Tuesday at Concordia against International Falls.

"Staying overnight in hotels, missing school, how can life be more fun? Then to be able to play basketball in front of what seems like millions of fans behind you is great. It brings the community together."

"Ever since I was a little kid I looked at Erik Kelly and Blaine Joerger go to state," Hjelmeland said. "Now to think little kids will look at us like that it's mind-boggling. It's crazy.

"The best part (about going to state) is all the little stuff. You get to be on T-shirts as gym rats, you get to be on TV and you get to talk to the media. That's all part of the fun.

"Staying overnight in hotels, missing school, how can life be more fun? Then to be able to play basketball in front of what seems like millions of fans behind you is great. It brings the community together."

Shooting struggles uncharacteristic of S-M

In Thursday's section semifinals against Bagley the Cardinals shot just 42 percent from the field. In Friday's championship they shot 47 percent from the floor and 63 percent at the line.

S-M entered the section semifinals averaging 50 percent from the field and 74 percent at the line.

"It's tournament time. That's part of it," S-M coach Lynn Peterson said of his team's shooting. "At times maybe we don't have everybody involved offensively like we would like to have.

"(On Thursday) Shannon Webster throws up 17 shots. He doesn't care whether he's hot or cold he just shoots the ball. But there's no doubt he's certainly a big reason we were still here (Friday) night.

"We were trying to say that, 'If we're going to go down guys, go down swinging.' I thought we got better contributions from everybody that played."