EAST GRAND FORKS — On the night celebrating his 1,000 career points, Tanner Campos shined again for the East Grand Forks Green Wave with 26 points in its 73-71 win over Grafton on Friday night.
Campos, who hit the benchmark Jan. 13 at Warroad, was a deep threat along with Austin Rusling as the duo came up with a combined six three-pointers down the stretch.
“We just ran a really good offense tonight,” Green Wave coach Josh Perkerewicz said. “We just grinded it out, getting stops on the defensive side to keep us in the game and then running a really good offense. We were getting a bucket every time or at least a really good shot.”
In the first half, East Grand Forks rocketed out of the gates with a 10-0 run to open the scoring. Campos and Drew Carpenter both finished three-point plays to put the Green Wave out to a hot start.
In the opening minutes, Campos had scored five, Carpenter scored seven, Clyde Anderson had four and Rusling had three with Grafton pushing back behind its rebounding ability.
ADVERTISEMENT
On offense, the Spoilers needed a spark and it came off the bench with Ethan Suda. His nose for the boards and 10 first-half points allowed Grafton to produce the first-half comeback and take the lead, 25-24, with seven minutes left.
Each side continued to answer with the first half ending with EGF in the lead 42-39.
“They jumped all over us early but we kept our composure and kept battling back. The fact that we were able to get back into the game, tie it and take the lead for a bit and make it a great game was a good thing,” Spoilers coach Riley Lillemoen said.
Both sides would continue to go back and forth in the second half. The Spoilers had their turn to open the half on a tear, with an 11-1 run quickly washed away by back-to-back threes and a steal-and-score from Campos. A 50-39 Grafton lead suddenly turned into a 57-52 Green Wave advantage.
“The speed of the game really made a difference. We were playing nine or 10 guys and got a chance to rest Tanner,” said Perkerewicz. “We were making them take the shot we wanted but they were getting second and third chance opportunities. (Braylon Baldwin) was very good in the second half, too. We couldn’t stay in front of him and he kept them in it.”
Baldwin was the catalyst for the Grafton offense in the second half with his seven points, but the Spoilers as a team struggled to convert on second chances off the boards and the Green Wave did their part to convert on their turnovers.
“Towards the 10-minute mark our defense really locked it down. Just when we were down, we started coming back and our defense got us back into the game,” Campos said after the win.
When Campos rested it was Rusling that dropped some key deep field goals as East Grand Forks continued to tighten its grip into the final five minutes. His second three-pointer upped the Green Wave lead to 67-63.
ADVERTISEMENT
Then Campos was there to finish the job as his two free throws would wind up as the winning points for the Green Wave, giving a fitting end to the 1,000 point celebration.
“It's something I didn’t think of, 1,000 points until I was a freshman. But now seeing all the hard work pay off feels so great. Now I’m just trying to keep going and get more,” said Campos.
East Grand Forks’ bounce-back effort will now prepare the Wave to take on Thief River Falls on Jan. 25. TRF is 4-0 in Section 8AA play, but before that will be Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton on Monday.
Grafton, now 8-3 on the year, will host May-Port-C-G as they look to compete for the top Region 2 spot with Thompson.
“We have some big games left, but we’re still in the learning stages with some of these guys at the varsity level. Only one guy back from last season and it shows sometimes, but any time you work hard that makes up for a lot of deficiencies and we’ve proven that,” said Lillemoen.
East Grand Forks 73,
Grafton 71
First half – EGF 42, GHS 39
EGF: Tanner Campos 26, Austin Rusling 16, Drew Carpenter 13, Clyde Anderson 6, Tommy Loer 5, Joey Votava 2, Spencer Egeland 2, Carter Vasek 2
GHS: Ryan Hanson 15, Braylon Baldwin 13, Ethan Suda 12, Tony Villarreal 12, William Jiskra 12, Maxwell Dumas 3
