Last second shot wins District 5 Championship for Edgeley/KM

Feb. 28—JAMESTOWN — Braeden Kinzler knew exactly what to do with 7.4 seconds remaining in the District 5 Basketball Tournament Championship game.

"I thought Joe (Kramlich) was just going to take over but my guy went on him and when that happened I knew he was going to pass it back to me," Kinzler, a sophomore for Edgeley/Kulm-Montpelier, said. "I shot it and then I couldn't see because (Colton) Ness hit me but then all of a sudden everyone started cheering so it was a great experience to have."

Kinzler's last-second hit secured the Rebels' third and final win of the District 5 tourney Tuesday evening at the Jamestown Civic Center. The Rebels knocked off defending District 5 champs, LaMoure/Litchville-Marion 56-53 to win their first District 5 championship since 2016.

E/KM and LLM will represent District 5's No. 1 and 2 seeds at next week's Region 3 Tournament. The tourney is slated to run Monday, Tuesday Thursday at the Jamestown Civic Center. E/KM, L/LM, Ellendale and Carrington are the four teams representing District 5. As of Feb. 28, the District 6 teams and seedings have not been announced.

Whoever will match up with the Rebels next week will have to keep an eye out for Kinzler.

"I do a lot during the summer," Kinzler said. "I play twice a day in the summer for a couple of hours each session. I do a lot of lifting and just a lot of stuff to make me better."

While Kinzler is only a sophomore, Edgeley/KM head coach Kevin Strobel has been starting him and Kramlich since they were freshmen.

"Technically they are probably — basketball-wise — juniors now," E/KM head coach Kevin Strobel said of Kinzler. "They are good athletes, they are good players and they are smart players.

"Braeden is a gym rat," he said. "He shoots in the summertime, he shoots on game day, he's in there in the morning shooting — he shot well all tournament and obviously it paid off here with a bigtime shot like that."

It was Kinzler who finally got the Rebels on the board Tuesday night.

In the opening four minutes, LaMoure/LM managed to jump out to a 7-0 lead and kept the Rebels' scoring in check until Kinzler hit a 3-pointer to make it a four-point ball game.

LaMoure responded and Colton Ness hit a couple of buckets to cap off the opening quarter. The Loboes led 15-8 after one.

"We knew it wasn't going to be easy — it never is between us two," Strobel said of getting a win. "It always goes down to the wire, it's never more than a one or two-possession game, to be honest with you."

Edgeley's Austin Strobel and Jacob Nitschke hit buckets on back-to-back possessions to pull the Rebels within three of the game leaders but that's when Max Musland appeared on the scene.

Musland snapped the Loboes scoring drought with an eight-foot jumper to put the Loboes' lead back to five.

It was back and forth the rest of the quarter.

The Rebels were up 23-19 with just over a minute remaining in the first half but it didn't take much for the script to flip.

Colton Ness got the Loboes back within two and then it was Musland who let off the final shot — a three-pointer from the top of the key — to take the lead 24-23 heading into the halftime break.

Musland was leading all scorers in the first half with 14 points while Colton Ness landed 10 points. The pair were the only athletes who cracked the double-digit threshold.

"Max is a special player," LLM head coach Tyler Thiegles said. "He kind of rolled us into that game. They were keying on him as any team does and Max showed a lot of fight. He scored 29 points and I don't even think that he's tapped into his potential yet. He'll be hungry and he'll get better. We'll all get better."

The Rebels outscored the Loboes 15-9 in the second quarter and continued the trend into the third, outscoring the Loboes 14-1 through the first 6:54 and 14-3 in the full eight.

"We knew that it was going to be a battle," Thiegles said. "They are a really athletic and well-coached team. They have had a lot of success. They weren't going to roll over, they were going to battle and they did."

To their credit, the Loboes didn't roll over either.

Musland shouldered his team and brought them back within two of the game leaders early on in the fourth quarter. While the Rebels worked to extend their lead, the Loboes managed to tie it at 46 and forced Coach Strobel to burn his first timeout.

A few minutes later, the Rebels found themselves up 53-50 but the Rebels forgot to key in on Musland who drew up and made yet another three-pointer to tie the affair with less than 20 seconds left to play.

A few seconds later, Kinzler hit his clutch shot and the Civic Center was in pandemonium.

"I think the guys are starting to gain more confidence and we're just coming together better as a team," Strobel said.

"Throughout the year we had ups and downs," Strobel said. "We played some top-10 teams and had a couple of them on the ropes but we just weren't playing consistently day in and day out.

"This tournament and our last regular season game, the effort was there, the energy was there," he said. "That's something that we coach and we preach. I was proud of them for doing that this week."

Edgeley/KM 56, LaMoure/LM 53

EKM 8 15 14 19 — 56

LLM 15 9 3 26 — 53

Edgeley/KM — Joe Kramlich 15, Braeden Kinzler 12, Dylan Carlson 11, Jacob Nitschke 11, Zeke Barnick 4, Austin Strobel 3. Totals: 21 FG, 9-14 FT, 14 fouls. 3-pointers: Kinzler 2, Carlson 2, Kramlich 1.

LaMoure/LM — Max Musland 29, Colton Ness 14, Anthony Hanson 4, Brayan Karlgaard 3, Tate Mart 2, Blase Isaacson 1. Totals: 20 FG, 7-9 FT, 22 fouls (Hanson fouled out). 3-pointers: Musland 5, Karlgaard 1.