For the first time as the MMCRU Royals, their boys basketball team qualified for the state tournament. They secured their spot in Des Moines with a 56-42 win over North Union on Saturday night in Storm Lake.
The Royals had to claw their way through the game, and it started right away in the first quarter with North Union leading 13-8 after the first eight minutes. MMCRU head coach Cam Kuchel says the Royals were not up to their standard defensively, and North Union was exploiting it.
After turning up the intensity on the defensive side, offensive success came around. The Royals shut North Union down midway through the quarter with a 9-0 run that saw them take a five-point lead late in the second quarter. Kamden Bork says both sides of the ball feed off each other both in negative and positive ways.
At the halftime break, MMCRU was 0-4 on three-point field goal attempts, and they knew they had to change things up. Coach Kuchel says that adjustment required his guys to look to score inside the painted area more in the second half.
One of the biggest beneficiaries of that adjustment was Josh Peterson who scored six quick points to open the third quarter. Peterson says he was looking forward to making a large impact to open the second half.
With a double-digit lead in tow heading into the fourth quarter, the Royals ballooned their lead with a 12-0 run that spanned the end of the third and the beginning of the fourth quarter. That ultimately led to a 56-42 final score. Kamden Bork led the Royals with 18 points, and he says this win is special not just for those on the team, but it is special for everyone in the communities that make up MMCRU.
Peterson, who finished with 16 points for the Royals, says this win legitimizes the program that the Royals have built the last few seasons.
Coach Kuchel was short on words when the game was over as he was trying to collect his thoughts. He says he is proud of the work this year’s senior class has put in to bring the program to where it is now.
With this being MMCRU’s inaugural trip to state, the nerves will be high, and the atmosphere will be brand new. Bork says getting a great week of practice leading up to the state tournament will be critical.
To make sure that work gets done in practice, Coach Kuchel will be leaning on his seniors to bring everyone along to their goal of performing well at the state tournament.
MMCRU will be the No. 2 seed in the Class 1A field in Des Moines when the tournament begins in over a week. The Royals’ first matchup will be against seven-seed Boyden-Hull on Tuesday, March 10 at 5:30 PM. KLEM Radio will have coverage of MMCRU’s state tournament run beginning with quarterfinal coverage at around 5:15 PM.
The state tournament qualification is the first for MMCRU as a consolidated program, but it is not the first for their communities. The 1992 Remsen-Union Rockets and the 1980 Marcus-Meriden-Cleghorn Eagles were both state tournament qualifiers in boys basketball.
