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Underwood stands tall against ORCS for 60-37 win

Justin Martinez/MDN Underwood’s Parker Christenson shows off his range with a shot from the top of the key during the Comets’ 60-37 win over Our Redeemer’s Friday in the semifinals of the Velva Invitational Tournament.

When Parker Christenson gets the ball down low, it’s best to just get out of the way.

The Our Redeemer’s Knights learned that the hard way as the Underwood center put on a show in the paint, scoring 21 points in Friday’s 60-37 win to advance to the championship of the Velva Invitational Tournament.

“We just came out strong, executed our game plan pretty well and got the dub,” Christenson said. “We wanted to swing the ball around and get good looks down low, which is what we did.”

Christenson gave the Knights problems from the jump, scoring six points in the opening quarter.

The 6-foot-3, 240-pound center owned the boards, absorbed contact and still found ways to score. The icing on the cake came in the closing seconds of the first quarter when Christenson gathered the ball down low and banked in a shot at the buzzer to give his team a 17-12 lead.

“(Christenson) has really put in a lot of hard work, and that showed tonight,” Underwood head coach Alex Jangula said. “He’s got good feet, and he can go either left or right. It’s great seeing his maturation process, and he’s only going to get better.”

But Our Redeemer’s had no intentions of going down for the count any time soon. Instead, the Knights turned to Matthew and Zachary Hendrickson. The duo combined for 19 of Our Redeemer’s 23 points in the first half to help cut Underwood’s lead to 25-23 at halftime.

“(The Hendricksons) are really good,” Christenson said. “We watched them shoot really well yesterday (against Nedrose), and they shot well again tonight.”

With the game up for grabs and the Knights determined to slow down Christenson, Ty Snyder made Our Redeemer’s pay for giving him space. The junior guard erupted for 10 points in the third quarter including a shot from deep to help bust the game wide open.

In addition to lighting up the scoreboard for 21 points, the Comets allowed just nine third-quarter points thanks to some stingy defense to take a 46-32 lead into the fourth and final quarter.

“We pride ourselves in our defensive intensity,” Jangula said. “We didn’t change much defensively in the second half. We just stuck with the game plan and played with our feet instead of our hands to avoid getting some silly fouls.”

Underwood went for the knockout in the fourth quarter, scoring 14 points to Our Redeemer’s five to earn the 60-37 victory.

Christenson finished with a game-high 21 points, while Snyder totaled 19 points. Senior forward Travis Reinbold also had a strong showing, chipping in 17 points in the win.

Zachary Hendrickson finished with a team-high 19 points for the Knights in the loss, and Landon Lang had the second-most points for his team with a total of eight.

With the win, Underwood has secured a date with the Velva Aggies in today’s championship match at 6 p.m. Toppling the hosts on the big stage will be a tall task, but fortunately for the Comets, they have a giant in their corner.

“We just have to come out strong and with some intensity,” Christenson said. “If we play well on defense again, the offense will come.”

Justin Martinez covers Minot High School sports and Class B high school sports. Follow him on Twitter @JTheSportsDude.

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