Henning Hornets End 53 Years Tournament Drought With Class A Title

Dressed in orange, black and white, most off the 800 residents of Henning saw Sam Fisher score a game high 22 points to lead the Hornets to a 67-42 drubbing of the North Woods Grizzlies in the Class A championship game Saturday afternoon at Target Center in Minneapolis.

It was the first state title for the northwest Minnesota town in its third trip to state and first since 1966.

Sam Fisher began the scoring for the Hornets ::20 into the game and Chase Kleppe tied the game for the Grizzlies.  Parker Fraki would vault Henning into the lead with a pair of shots from Nicollet Mall.  His first bounced off the glass and went through the net.  Trevor Morrison would end the run for North Woods.  The Hornets would put a sting in the Grizzlies offense when Sam Fisher forced a turnover and turned it into a basket.  Fraki, a 6'1" junior would score seven straight points.  The Goggleye Brothers would be a bright spot in the Grizzlies offense when Darius made a perimeter pass to Cade, who scored the game winning basket in the semifinals Friday against Ada Borup and hit a three pointer.  But Sam Fisher would go on a late first half tear, scoring six straight points and Henning led 36-17 at halftime.

Morrison would begin the second half scoring for the Grizzlies :10 into the half and Isaac Fisher would tally for the Hornets.  Isaac Fisher would score four consecutive points for Henning following Dylan Chiabotti's three pointer for North Woods.  He's one of four members of the Chiabotti family to play for North Woods.  The others are TJ, Brendan and Jared.  Morrison would score six of the Grizzlies eight points.  But it wouldn't be enough as Blake Wallevand would come off the bench for Henning and hit a couple of three points and make a couple of outstanding passes that Sam Fisher and Adam Lange would score.  As the margin mounted higher.  Hornets head coach Randy Misegades and Grizzlies head coach Will Kleppe emptied their benches and gave the reserves a chance to play in the Class A title game.

Other Henning players in double figures were Fraki with 13 points.  He also had five assists.  Blake Wallevand added 12 points, going 5-5 from the field.  Morrison led North Woods with 11 points and 12 rebounds and Chase Kleppe added 10 points.

Henning concluded their season 31-1 and North Woods finished the year 29-3.

In the third place game that was played at Ganglehoff Center on the Concordia University campus in St. Paul, Alex Folz scored 29 points to lead the Spring Grove Lions to a 72-68 overtime win over the Ada-Borup Cougars.  Mason Miller led the Cougars with 22 points, 14 rebounds and four blocked shots.