Sioux Falls, South Dakota — Western Christian used a late basket by Brayden Van Meeteren to give the Wolfpack the 65-64 win over Dell Rapids at the Sanford Pentagon Saturday night.
Here’s a look at the game-winning shot by Brayden Van Meeteren of @WCWolfpackHoops with 1 second left that secured a 65-64 win over Dell Rapids in the Heritage Classic. (@MikeHenriksen on the call.) #SanfordSports pic.twitter.com/UIIhd5a88Y
— Sanford Pentagon (@SanfordPentagon) January 3, 2021
Western used four three pointers early to jump out in front, but after a back and forth affair, Western’s lead was only 20-18 after the first quarter. Western started the second quarter with an 8-0 run to be up by as much as ten, but a flurry of points from Connor Rentz off the bench for Dell Rapids brought the Quarriers back into the fold, and Dell Rapids had a 33-32 lead at the half. In the third quarter, Western’s Wyatt Gulker erupted for 10 third quarter points to help Western regain the lead after three quarters of play at 51-50. In the fourth quarter the game continued to go back and forth. With ten seconds to go, down ten, Western inbounded the ball, got it to Brayden Van Meeteren, who drove to the hoop and put in the underhand layup with 1 second to go to give Western the 65-64 lead. The ensuing Dell Rapids inbounds was off the mark and Western came away with the win.
Western had 4 players in double figure. Ty Van Essen put in 16, Wyatt Gulker had 15, Eli Van Essen had 12 points, and Tyson Boer put in 10. Dell Rapids had three players in double figures. Carter Nelson put in 16, Connor Rentz had 14, and Brayden Pankonen added 13.
With the win, Western improves to 6-2 on the year. Dell Rapids falls to 4-1.
Up next for Western is another road trip to South Dakota as they take on Harrisburg on Tuesday night.
Coach Keizer said, “Tonight was a great basketball game by both teams. Playing at the Pentagon brings a special opportunity and you know you’re going to have to play very well to come out with a win.
We knew going in that Dell Rapids would give us some trouble with their backcourt. They have tremendous guards and they’re utilized so well. They made plays all night but we didn’t allow one guy to totally dictate the game and held them in check as much as we could.
I thought we played a very clean game of basketball tonight. The game was back and forth all night. We battled all night and fortunately made a play at the end of the game to win it.
We rebounded much better tonight than we have prior to Christmas break. We had multiple guys going after long rebounds and continued to fight for everything. That’s a sign of growth on our end.
Eli Van Essen started it off by rejecting a ball screen and was able to get downhill on his defender to complete the handoff to Brayden. Brayden had a tremendous finish!
I’m excited for the guys. They were excited because we felt like Dell Rapids is a very good team so this was a great win for us to start off the new year!”
