Six weeks ago, before the basketball season started, Cleveland varsity head coach Mike Meyer had an angel drop a gift in his lap when he found out 6-5 senior Carter Barto had medical clearance to be back on the court this year.
Barto had injured his knee for the second time early last season and didn’t expect to compete in basketball again.
Meyer also knew that freshman Carson Lyons, who, recovering from a shattered collarbone, was out most of last season, would integrate with the Clippers this year from the get go.
“I was so excited for this season having guys healthy, having those two back in the lineup.”
But, in the form of a phone call, Meyer got another gift when he found out a friend was moving back into the district after five years in Northern Minnesota and his son would play basketball for Cleveland.
“I got a call from Bernie (Kortuem) saying Brennan (Kortuem) (on the drive above) is coming back. I started getting butterflies because they are good family friends, and I’ve seen him play.”
With 24 points, Kortuem led the Clippers to a 52-47 win in their season opener against host Madelia on Thursday.
“I was most excited for his defense, but clearly his offense was huge tonight,” Meyer said.
Not a team to give up easily, Madelia put the win in jeopardy down the stretch.
With the Clippers in front 45-39 with 2 minutes to go in the game, Kortuem extended the Clipper lead with a three. Blake Lyons made the first of two foul shots, but Madelia responded with a pair of threes, the second coming after the Clippers got called for an over-and-back.
The only other Clipper to score in the second half besides his brother Blake and Kortuem, Carson Lyons hit the second of two foul shots for a 50-45 Clipper advantage with 28 seconds left. With 11 seconds left, Madelia went to the foul line and missed both shots but grabbed the rebound and converted an inside basket.
With fewer than 10 seconds left, the Clippers, in front by three, had to get the ball in bounds on the Madelia side of the court three times after the ball got knocked out of bounds twice, but they managed, and Blake Lyons made a pair of free shots with 4.2 seconds left to put the finishing touches on the victory.
“We just had to relax and take the ball across the court, go to the middle and find the outlets,” said Blake Lyons, who, along with Kyle Connor, played with Kortuem as fifth graders.
Kortuem said that the team listened to Meyer, and that made the difference.
“Towards the end of the game he told us to slow down, and we slowed it down, and then Blake hit two clutch free shots to seal the deal.”
“Madelia is a team like us,” Meyer said. “They didn’t lose anybody from their starting squad last year. They’re a good team. We played them in the offseason, and they beat us by about 20 or 25. They were a little cold shooting tonight, but we can go back and forth on the things we didn’t have going our way too. But that’s a testament to our defense too. We put in that zone, and I was nervous for it. That’s something new for us this year, but our boys played it real aggressively, and it flustered them.”
Madelia applied a full-court press for much of the game, but the Clippers did a good job negotiating through it, something that didn’t happen last year in their first meeting, when the visiting Clippers couldn’t break the press and lost by 30 points. As their season was drawing to a close, the Clippers came back though to defeat the Blackhawks at home for their only win.
With three baskets from Gabe Sullivan and a two and a three from Kortuem, the Clippers led 12-11. Jorden Rossow hit a couple of threes, but Madelia hit back-to-back threes as the half drew to the close to take a 26-22 advantage into the locker room.
The Blackhawks hit another three to start the second half, but Blake Lyons made shot from inside the arc, and Kortuem drove the baseline for two and then made consecutive threes for a 32-31 Clipper lead.
After Carson Lyons picked up his fourth foul at the 10:43 mark, Madelia scored for a 1-point lead, but Blake Lyons spun for two, for a lead the Clippers never relinquished.
The first game with the shot clock, the Madelia scoring bench had a few resetting errors as expected, but the clock switched to decimal numbers with 5 second left without having the decimal point, and that caused confusion too, since, for example, 2 seconds and 20 seconds were displayed the same.
The two issues combined when Rossow put up a three-pointer less than a second remaining. One of the refs, thinking that the clock had been reset to 20 in error, blew his whistle with the ball midway through its flight path. Rossow’s shot made it through the net, but it didn’t count.
But it all ended in the Clippers’ favor as they had possession with 3.5 seconds on the shot clock, Blake Lyons took the ball inside, was fouled and made the ensuing free shot, so the Clippers got a three-point play out of the deal anyway to go in front 37-33.
Blake Lyons had 15 points. Sullivan and Rossow each had six points. Barto was one day away from being officially cleared to play.
The Clippers had six baskets from three-point range, four from Kortuem and two off the hands of Rossow. Making 14 of 19 foul shots, they had a good night on the foul line, especially for a first game of the season and one on the road as well.
Madelia scored 24 points from outside the arc and was seven of 13 in free throw shooting.
The varsity boys host Alden-Conger on Tuesday.
Carson Lyons pivots toward the basket.
With six points, Gabe Sullivan got the Clippers off to a good start.
Bode Bartell got some key minutes, especially when the Clippers needed to take care of the ball.
Blake Lyons wrangles with a Madelia defender.