Fertile-Beltrami, Hillsboro Central Valley and Mahnomen drew the wrong week to face Ada-Borup.
After the Cougars fell to Park Christian last Friday, Ada-Borup (16-3) rebounded with a perfect, three-win week.
The Cougars capped off its winning week Friday with a 76-44 victory over the Indians in Mahnomen.
“This win was a great way to finish off the week,” Ada-Borup coach Trevor Stewart said. “It was good to see the kids play hard in all three games after we dropped the game to Park Christian.”
Ada-Borup prospered off of Blake Fetting’s scoring numbers over the three game stretch, as he totaled 64 points, and his 19 points against Mahnomen (12-4) led all scorers.
But it wasn’t just Fetting who was proficient in scoring, as double digit scoring performances from Joel Merkens, JD Kappes and Lance Ruebke throughout the week provided the balanced scoring attack Ada-Borup needed to win.
Yet with that said, its defense would be the initiator of scoring up roars. The Cougars amassed 18 steals against Mahnomen, and many of the takeaways led to the 24-8 first half run to blow open what was a 14-12 deficit.
Not only did Mahnomen’s turnovers give way to an Ada-Borup run, but it also kept its top scorer in Jake Pavek from getting on a hot streak, as the Indians’ forward was limited to just 4 points.
To make matters worse for Mahnomen, it was unable to fully terminate the run Ada-Borup had in the first half, as the Cougars opened the second half with a 9-0 run, highlighted by a Merkens one-handed slam.
“Things keep looking better for us,” Stewart said. “Our big guys worked tirelessly to defend and limit Pavek’s production. We kept our poise through the rough stretch early on and that’s what we needed tonight. Poise and the ability to focus when it counts.”