MVL's streak continues

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- The Minnesota Valley Lutheran boys' basketball winning streak has now reached seven.

Two steals and baskets by Andy Beilke -- the first with 45 seconds left in the game and the later as time expired -- lifted the Chargers to a 69-65 win over Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop Tuesday night in Tomahawk Conference basketball.

Beilke's two steals highlighted a final 1:49 of the contest that saw the Chargers erase a 65-62 Thunderbird lead.

Jake Firle led MVL (7-3; 9-5) with 23 points -- 15 of those coming in the second half. Beilke netted 15, with Nate Nass adding 12.

Justin DeRock led the Thunderbirds (6-4) with a game-high 24 points. Jon DeRock added 19.

"The kids really played hard tonight," Charger coach Craig Morgan said. His team will host Sleepy Eye St. Mary's on Friday in a Tomahawk Conference meeting before entertaining Blue Earth Area Saturday night. "We had some lapses at times where, offensively, we did not run what we wanted to. But overall, I was pleased with the kids -- they beat a real good GFW team."

GFW coach Rich Busse said that his team battled hard the entire game.

"But when it came down to it -- the last two or three possessions of the game -- they made a play and we didn't," Busse said. "Sometimes, you want to dig for spectacular answers to those situations, but the bottom line is they made three plays in a row and we didn't. That was the four or five point swing that was the difference in the ballgame."

The Thunderbirds would break a 60-60 tie with 3:56 left in the game when Jon DeRock canned a trey and brother Justin DeRock hit a bucket in the paint with 2:35 remaining for a 65-60 lead.

But Nass put back a Firle shot before Firle hit a bucket with :56 left in the game to pull the Chargers to 65-64. Andy Beilke then swiped the ball on the next Thunderbird possession and the basket saw MVL take a 66-65 lead with :49 left. Beilke then sank one of two free throws with :12 left for a 67-65 lead. With :08 left in the game, the Thunderbirds took a timeout.

"We had three options (after the timeout)," Busse said. "We wanted to get it to Jon (DeRock) and let him make the play for us -- that is what we wanted to do. Where he got the ball on the floor was a place that he was comfortable working. We got it there but Beike picked his pocket. Nine times out of ten, Jon handles that play spectacularly -- we got it in the hands that we wanted to. They made the play when they needed to."

"He (Beilke) has such quick hands and quick feet, and he anticipates the cross-over and got the steal," Morgan said.

And it was a comeback that saw the Chargers overcome a second half in which they hit only seven of 25 shots before hitting the final five shots of the game -- two on steals by Beilke.

GFW came out and held an 11-4 lead early in the first quarter before the Chargers rattled off a 16-4 spurt to take a 20-15 lead with 1:20 left in the first quarter.

Both teams exchanged leads in the second quarter with the Chargers holding a 30-25 lead on a Grant Holzhueter bucket before GFW knotted the game at 32-32 on a bucket followed by a 3-ball from Jon DeRock.

MVL held a 35-32 lead going into the third quarter but the Thunderbirds hung tough in that quarter thanks to Justin DeRock who scored the first 10 points for GFW in that quarter, and his rebound bucket cut the Charger lead to 48-47. He accounted for 12 of the 17 Thunderbird points.

"Justin has played the last four games like the senior that he is," Busse said. "He has confidence beyond what he needs -- he feels that he can make a play anytime."

Firle would counter Justin DeRock's second half pont total of 14 with 15 of his own, including a three-pointer with 1:50 left in the third quarter that lifted MVL to a 53-49 lead.

"We were getting so many perimeter shots but not hitting them and he wanted the ball -- he hit a three for us and got some big baskets," Morgan said.

MVL won the "B" game 77-64. David Petersen led MVL with 30 points while Joe Mages hit for 18 and Jack Sallstrom 17 respectively for GFW.