Thief River Falls junior Caleb Rosendahl moves his feet to defend against Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton’s Owen Leach. The Prowlers held the Rebels to 53 points and avenged a Section 8AA semifinal loss to the Rebels in March 2022.

by Scott DCamp
Sports Editor

Thief River Falls avenged its final loss of the 2021-22 season with a 66-53 win over Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton Thursday night at a packed Lincoln High School Brickhouse.

“Just an old fashioned grind for both teams,” Thief River Falls Head Coach Jon Hams said of Thursday night’s game. “The game turned to a defensive battle after they moved into a zone. We were getting good looks but not really hammering them home through the middle part of the half.”

Thief River Falls senior Jack Manning makes a move to get past DGF defender Owen Leach. Manning scored 25 points in the Prowlers’ 66-53 win over the Rebels Thursday night.

The Prowlers started the game on a 7-0 run with a bucket by Jack Rosendahl, a pair of Jack Manning free throws and a Jesse McDougall three pointer.

The early run forced the Rebels to take a timeout and they made up some ground with a pair of trips to the foul line, making the score 9-4.

The Prowlers got hot again and went on another 7-0 run with a pair of two-point buckets from Manning and a three pointer by Jack Rosendahl that led to the Rebels burning another timeout with 13:20 left in the opening half.

The Rebels settled down coming out of the timeout, but the Prowlers made sure that nothing came easy. The Prowler lead fluctuated between nine and 13 points for the remainder of the half and the Prowlers took a 35-24 lead into the locker room.

The Rebels changed things up in the second half and went to a zone defense that slowed down the Prowlers’ run and gun attack and it allowed the Rebels to claw their way back into the game.

The Prowlers led by 14, 42-28, after getting scores from Manning, Jack Rosendahl and McDougall. An 11-3 run brought the Rebels to within three points of the Prowlers at 44-41 with eight minutes left to play.

There was no panic by the Prowlers, however, with Manning scoring on each of the team’s next two possessions to push the lead back to seven points.

The Rebels would get back to within two of the Prowlers, 51-49, with a little over four minutes remaining. The Prowlers again had the answer as Nathan Nelson and Manning supplied the points for a quick 6-0 Prowler run to push the lead to eight points.

The Rebels wouldn’t get closer than six points of the Prowlers over the final three minutes as the Prowlers finished the game on a 9-2 run.

Three Prowlers finished in double figures Thursday night, led by 25 points and nine rebounds from Manning. Jack Rosendahl scored 15 points, while adding six rebounds and three assists. Also in double figures for the Prowlers was McDougall with 10 points and six assists.

The Prowlers are back in action Friday, Jan. 13 with another tough test at ninth-ranked Pequot Lakes.

Scoring
1 2 T
DGF 24 29 53
TRF 35 31 66
DGF – N/A
TRF – McDougall 10, C. Rosendahl 7, J. Rosendahl 15, Nelson 2, Friedrich 7, Manning 25.

Section 8AA Boys
Overall QRF
W L
Perham
9 0 88.0
TRF
10 0 66.5
Barnesville
5 0 63.8
DGF
3 2 60.6
Red Lake
6 1 51.2
Hawley
4 4 48.5
Pelican Rapids
7 3 47.8
Fergus Falls
4 4 46.9
East Grand Forks
3 3 46.5
Wadena-Deer Creek
4 3 36.7
Warroad
4 6 31.2
Crookston
4 6 29.3
Frazee
2 7 23.7
Park Rapids
1 7 21.2
Menahga
2 7 17.4
Roseau
1 8 11.7