Alex Michels attacks the basket (below)
Tiger coach Shane Wyandt had some questions as to how his team would react after committing a whopping 35 turnovers in an 80-55 loss at Owatonna Tuesday night, Dec. 7. He got the answers he wanted two nights later in a convincing 70-48 win over Hastings at Tiger Gym.
"I thought this game would tell us a lot about who were were," Wyandt said. "We still made some mistakes, but we are going to do that, especially early in the season."
"Overall I was pleased with our effort. I thought our defense did a lot of good things for us. Anytime you can have wins of 31 (74-43 over Rochester John Marshall) and 22 points, you take them."
Farmington jumped to a quick 11-3 lead and although Hastings came back to make it close early, the Tigers went on a late first half run to take a 36-24 lead to the halftime break.
Darren Beenken provided the spark in the first half, scoring 13 of his game-high 22 points.
"Darren had a rough outing against JM," Wyandt said, "but he has come back tough the last two games."
The Tigers continued to build their lead over the final 18 minutes as Wyandt substituted liberally, giving many of his younger players some valuable court time.
Alex Michels and Josh Ruthenbeck joined Beenken in double figures with 14 and 10 points respectively. Austin Bassett added eight, including a pair of three-pointers.
Beenken not only led the way in scoring but he also pulled own a team-high nine rebounds and recorded five steals and four assists. Michels added six boards and four assists. Sebren Baer also had four assists for the winners.
At Owatonna, the Tigers piled up turnovers like cord wood in the first half and although they reduced a 26-point deficit to 10 midway through the second half could never fully recover.
"We did a lot of things well," Wyandt said. "We outshot them. We outrebounded them and we forced them into 20 turnovers. That goes to show how important it is to take care of the basketball."
Michels had 12 points and eight rebounds in the losing effort. Beenken and Baer added nine apiece and Ruthenbeck yanked down a team-high 10 rebounds.
Farmington, 2-1, all against Section 1 opposition, returns to action Tuesday night, Dec. 14, with a road game at St. Paul Harding.
