The Elks, a heavy favorite in Section 8AAAA, vanquished the Cardinals 63-57 in the championship game Thursday evening at Sauk Rapids, but not before falling behind 22-10, trailing almost the whole game and sweating out an overtime period.

It was a gut-wrencher from start to finish, perfect for a section championship. Both sides of the gym were almost full, and the roaring from one or the other side never stopped. The Elk River student gallery — a throng including dozens of fellow Elk athletes from other teams, and sweetened by Rogers and Zimmerman athletes who showed up to root for their former classmates — was thunderous in their support of the boys on the floor but clearly worried, too. The Cardinals never let the Elks make any kind of a run, at least not until the final two minutes when the Elks scored the last 10 points of the contest.

After Schiltz tallied six straight points, four of them on free shots, for a 62-57 lead with 33 seconds left, the Elk fans finally sensed victory at hand as they pushed forward to get ready to storm the floor at the final horn.

Elk River, at No. 7 the only ranked team in the section, will take a 26-3 mark into the state tournament. They will face either Cretin-Derham Hall or Woodbury, who play Friday evening, in the first round at the Target Center on Wednesday at 10 a.m. This will be Elk River's seventh state trip, all since 1993, and they'll join the girls team as a state entrant this year.

Along with 21 by Schiltz, a 6-foot-3 senior forward, and 12 by the 6-foot-3 Macomber, the Elks got 14 points and five rebounds from 6-foot-2 forward Sam Halverson, who led them with 70 points in the section tournament.

Garrett Brunnell, the Elks' 6-foot-4 muscle guy under the hoop, came through with nine points, three of them in overtime, although he was just 3-for-8 at the line. Dominic Dowd came up with two big 3-pointers. Jackson Beaudoin was scoreless but strung out seven assists with his alert and often daring passes.

Alexandria for 18 points from 6-foot-1 senior guard Mike Hendricks, 16 from 6-foot-6 senior center Chris Conley, 12 from 6-foot-2 senor guard Justin Larson, and 10 from 6-foot-2 junior guard Eric Hartmann.

Alexandria drilled nine of its first 12 shots from the field plus two free shots for a 22-10 lead and the Alexandria gallery was rocking and roaring.

The Elks were in danger of reeling before the 5-foot-7 Beaudoin jump-started them with two spectacular passes. He unleashed an alley-oop delivery from full gallop on a breakaway to Brunell, who soared to snatch the ball and bank it home in one motion, then drove into the lane against the big kids, who smothered him, but not before he twisted and fired the ball back to the top of the key to Halverson, who obliged with a three-point shot, making it 22-15.

The Elks stabilized, and went into halftime down 30-25. Alexandria continued to hold a two-basket lead most of the time until Dowd let fly with a long three-pointer from the wing with 7:02 left for a 42-40 lead.

Alex battled back for ties at 42 and 44. Then two 3-pointers, by Schiltz and by Halverson off a long pass from Beaudoin, put the Elks up 51-46. Again Alex responded with Larson's trifecta and Hartman's two free shots for 51-51 tie. Macomber whirled and scored for a 53-51 lead and got fouled, but missed the free throw and fouled Conley going for the rebound. Conley sank two shots and it was 53-53 with 1:21 left.

The Elks killed off the final 1:21 and were trying to find an opening in the last few seconds when Schiltz threw the ball out of bounds with 1.9 seconds left. Overtime.

Larson gave Alex a 57-53 lead with an alley-oop basket on a feed from Hendricks, then a pullup jumper. But the Elks clamped down after that and Alex scored no more.

Beoudoin faked a three-pointer and fired inside to Brunell, who converted to make it 57-55. Brunell got fouled and missed one but made the second. Schiltz made two free shots for a 58-57 lead with 1:30 left. After two turnovers, Macomber fouled Conley on an inbounds play, but the Elks got a big break as Conley missed them both (the Cardinals were 10-for-14 before that). Then came a fullcourt scramble that resulted in a hockey-like goal as Jeff Pegues passed to Macomber who relayed under the hoop to Schiltz for a transition basket that made it 60-57. Alex missed a three, Halverson rebounded, Schiltz got hacked again and buried two more to make it 62-57. And finally the Elks bench could do some high fives and their schoolmates behind them could breath easy.

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