The finale of Pack the Gym night at Blaine High School went to the home Bengals on Friday night, winning 74-71.  After the Blaine girls’ squad was crushed 51-15, the boys looked determined right away with 6/6 shooting to start the game.

Jason Travis(11) started the scoring off with a corner three off a nice dish from fellow junior Matt Barthels(11).  Travis had eight points in the game, and his three pointer paved the way for Blaine to dominate the first half.  The Bengals held a commanding 38-24 lead at halftime.

Anoka’s star senior, Malcolm Seals(12), didn’t plan on letting his team go down easy.  It seemed like every bucket the Tornadoes scored came from Seals, who had an impressive 32 points.

Anoka closed the gap with four minutes to go in the second half, and had the momentum for the closing minutes.

With under a minute to play, Blaine scored clutch baskets to stay in front of Anoka.  Senior Justin Mbanfo scored four huge points for his team in the closing minutes, part of his great 23 point performace on Friday.

Blaine led by one with seconds on the clock when Anoka junior Stephen Barthold(11) fouled Blaine’s Kurt Gillund(12) in a battle for a loose ball.  Barthold was irate, and received a double technical for his arguments, which meant he was ejected from the ball game.  Travis made one of the two technical free throws, and Gillund made one of his two foul shots.  Anoka’s only chance with 0.8 seconds left was a full court heave to tie the game, but it was nowhere close to the basket, and the Bengals marched on to a 74-71 victory over their conference rivals.

Barthels led the Bengals in scoring, with 24 points on 8 of 14 shooting.  He tied for team leads with 7 rebounds (Mbanfo, Gillund) and 4 assists (Joe Robel(12)).

Next up for the Bengals is an away game against Andover on February 12.

* All player and team stats are unofficial recordings