Free throws doom Blossoms in home opener

The Blooming Prairie boys basketball team came close to taking the lead multiple times, but could never quite overtake the United South Central (USC) Rebels and ended up losing its home opener 59-46 on Friday, Jan. 22.
The Rebels scored the first five points of the game to take an early two-possession lead.
Coach Nate Piller explained there were multiple reasons why the Blossoms got off to a slow start.
“Part of that, it was our first game of the season and none of the guys on our team had started a varsity game before. That was USC’s third game of the season and they play a packline defense to limit inside shots. The nine guys we had Friday have only had two practices together because of health issues,” he said. “USC had the opening possession, then we came down and didn’t score. USC’s next possession was three plus minutes. So that’s going to mean a slow start.”
Once the Blossoms got their first basket, he noticed his team get more in-sync.
“The first basket is always hard. Nerves settled down a little, and we got a little more aggressive,” he said.
Thanks to that aggressiveness, Blooming Prairie tied the game 15-15 with eight and a half minutes left in the first half.
In final six minutes, USC went on a 11-2 run to take a 30-19 lead into halftime.
“We missed some shots and had a hard time rebounding. We also had a key player pick up two early fouls, so we couldn’t afford for him to get a third foul late in the [first] half. He’s a guy that’s going to lead us in scoring and rebounding for the short term,” Piller said.
Down by 11 at halftime, he mentioned that the Blossoms had to work on maintaining possession of the ball better in the second half.
“We struggled to rebound and mishandled the ball a little more than we’d like,” he said. “Our defensive rebounds went from 47% in the first half to 83% in the second half.”
In addition to rebounding, Blooming Prairie’s offense also played better in the second half. The Blossoms started the second half on a 7-0 run to trim their deficit to four points, 30-26.
However, other than the rebounding margins, Piller said Blooming Prairie played nearly identical in the second half as they did in the first half.
In the middle of the second half, the Blossoms trailed by just one point, 37-36, but then the Rebels went on a 11-3 run to take a 48-39 lead with just under five minutes left in the game.
He noted the main reason that run happened was Blooming Prairie started fouling USC to try to extend the game.
“We were down by four until about three minutes left. By then our leading scorer and rebounder had fouled out. USC made 23 free throws to our five,” he said.
Thanks in part to the free throw advantage, the Rebels won 59-46.
Overall, he was mostly happy with how his team played in its season opener.
“We have two guys out who would start. One is an All-Conference player and the other could get similar recognition this year. Two other guys would also be key contributors, so considering four of our top ten players were out, I think the guys filled in admirably,” Piller said.
Mitchell Fiebiger led the way with 13 points, while Alex Miller and Jacob Naatz each scored 11.
He mentioned that the Blossoms can improve on all aspects of their game.
Blooming Prairie’s (0-1) next game is a road contest against Maple River (2-0) at 7:15 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 29.