The Park High School Boys Varsity Basketball Team open up their state tournament run against the second seeded Hamilton Broncs out of the west. Park High, coming in with the third seed out of the east, versus the Hamilton Broncs is a rather odd matchup, seeing that the two teams don’t play each other in the regular season. This would be the first time the two teams would face each other since, well, I don’t know. I can’t find any other matchups in past state tournaments, but I doubt they haven’t played each other before.

Anyways, this game, like many others at the state tournament, would get of to a VERY slow start. The first quarter was very uneventful with hamilton leading park 12 to 10 at the end of the first quarter. Park was scoreless for the first five and a half minutes of the first quarter.

Again in the second quarter, the Broncs would shootout to an early lead over Park, at on point leading 21 – 14. Park would make a run in the middle of the quarter to bring the score 21 – 20. The Broncs would go into the half with a 25 – 20 lead.

Early quarter pushes were a trend for Hamilton, as they established a commanding lead early in the third quarter of 34 – 25 with 3:11 left in the quarter. Almost as if it was a game of “whatever you can do I can do too,” Park would go on a late run fueled by Mcleod Versland and Brendon Johnson’s hail storm of three pointers. Park would tie the game at 34 – 34 late in the third. The run for Park would continue into the horn signalling the end of the third quarter. Park went into the fourth quarter leading 37 – 36.

The fourth quarter was the only real outlier of the game, with the teams trading blow for blow. Mcleod Versland would be the only real reason Park hung around with his perfectly timed threes. With three minutes left in the fourth, the game would be tied at 45 – 45. Hunter Omlid for Hamilton would hit what seemed to be a deal breaker for the Broncs at the top of the arc with 1:16 to play, putting Hamilton up 48 – 45. The Broncs would try and spread their offense out to run out the clock. Park would still keep this game close, but it wouldn’t be enough ultimately falling 54 – 51 to Hamilton.

Park takes on Frenchtown on Friday, March 8th at 1:30 pm in the consolation bracket. A win would keep them in the consolation bracket in a bid to win third place, whereas a loss would send them  home.