No. 7 RSM boys pull away from H-M-S in second half

REMSEN — Tied at halftime with Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn, the Class 1A No. 7 ranked Remsen St. Mary’s boys basketball team pulled away in the second half in their district semifinal round game on Thursday. RSM ended up on top by a final score of 58-45 after the score was tied at 26-26 at the intermission.

RSM held a slim 13-10 advantage after a quarter before the opposing team pulled to a tie at halftime with a 3-pointer from Kooper Ebel straight up over the top of Jaxon Bunkers at the buzzer. Ebel ended with 22 points for H-M-S, but it wasn’t enough to propel his team to the win.

RSM outscored their War Eagle Conference foe 21-13 in the third quarter and extended their lead in the final frame by an 11-6 margin.

Collin Homan finished with 19 points as the leading scorer for RSM. He also had seven rebounds which tied for most on the team.

Ryan Willman added 12 points with half of those at the charity stripe.

Bunkers had an unconventional double-double with 11 points and 10 assists. He added seven rebounds to tie for most on the team.

Cael Ortmann added nine points while Alex Schroeder had the remaining seven points for RSM.

Remsen St. Mary’s has controlled the series with nine wins in a row. That includes the team’s regular season conference win by a 60-50 final score which followed a similar trajectory of RSM holding a two point advantage at halftime and then pulling away in the second half.

Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn concludes their season with a 12-10 record.

Remsen St. Mary’s (20-2) advances to Tuesday’s district final which will be played at Sioux Center. The Hawks will face another familiar foe in South O’Brien (16-7).

The two teams met in last year’s district final, a low-scoring 29-23 contest. In this year’s two meetings, Remsen St. Mary’s won the first contest by a 67-41 score at home in early December. The rematch in Paullina on Feb. 4 was a closer 69-62 game, also a win for the Hawks.