New Town Eagles have landed
New Town Eagles have landed
Boys basketball team makes first State Class B appearance in 30 years
By MARVIN BAKER
EDITOR
It probably wasn’t intentional but the New Town Eagles worked the same game plan in the Region 8 championship as they did in the semifinal and the result was nearly a mirror image.
New Town used clutch free-throwing shooting in overtime against Watford City to take the down the Wolves and earn a trip to the State Class B tournament this weekend in Minot. The Eagles resisted a strong Divide County comeback Tuesday in the semis with fancy free-throwing shooting to beat the Maroons.
With time running out, it appeared that New Town had the game despite a strong Watford City comeback but then Nick Liebel hit a basket underneath with a second remaining to send the game into overtime.
That period was a cautious one for both teams, knowing what was on the line, but the Eagles emerged with their hot hands at the charity stripe, including five tosses by Mike Youngbird to seal the victory.
“It’s great being able to beat Watford City four times this year,” said New Town head coach Chuck Hunter. “We knew that we would be matching up against them three or four times so we really pushed that for the guys, letting them know that it is either us or them that is going to state and they have been feeding off it pretty well.”
Youngbird had a great night under a lot of pressure, knocking down 23 and building his confidence for the Fargo Oak Grove game in the opening round of the state tournament. Floor leader Alex Baker added 17 and Preston Smith hit 16. Strong man Jeremiah Wells, who has been playing good basketball of late, was also in double figures with 12. Donovan Lambert and David Lambert also scored for the Eagles.
