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New Prague rolls in first half, glides past Holy Family Catholic

By Ben Farber, SportsEngine, 02/28/17, 7:00AM CST

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The Trojans outscored the Fire 32-15 in the first half.


Jacob Milinkovich (2) led New Prague with 19 points in its 60-39 defeat of Holy Family Catholic. The Trojans will take on Orono on Friday night for the Wright County East conference title. Photo by Cheryl Myers, SportsEngine


Junior guard Nathan Hendler takes the ball up court for the Fire. Hendler led Holy Family's scoring with 11 points. Photo by Cheryl Myers, SportsEngine

New Prague, ranked No. 9 in Class 4A by Minnesota Basketball News, drowned Holy Family Catholic in defense Tuesday night, winning on the road by a looks-closer-than-it-was margin of 60-39 in Victoria.

The Trojans (22-3, 8-1) completely smothered Holy Family. Tied at 15-15 midway through the first half, the Fire were held scoreless while New Prague ripped off a 22-0 run to close out the period. Holy Family (10-15, 1-8) did not score for over 15 minutes of game action—from nine minutes remaining in the first half until 11:25 on the clock in the second.

“We started talking more. We always talk about communicating and rotating and finally we were prepared. You go over the scouting reports, you talk about what you’re going to do,” said New Prague coach Bryce Tesdahl. “After we got going a little bit, we called a timeout and settled down. We talked about the little things, reminded them of the little things, and we got back to playing defense like how we usually play.”

Senior guard Jacob Milinkovich score 19 points,15 in the second half, to lead New Prague. The Bethany Lutheran-bound playmaker knocked down five three-pointers in the first few minutes of the second period. Though Milinkovich’s sharpshooting spurred New Prague’s blowout win, he added four rebounds, five assists and three steals to his box score totals.

Future St. John’s (MN) big man Zach Hanson contributed 11 points, 6 rebounds, and a pair of blocks for New Prague. The Trojans offense was diffusive—eight different players scored for New Prague in the win.

Tesdahl praised his team’s effort and fortitude. Although New Prague meandered its way through the game’s opening minutes, Tesdahl said his guys clamped down when they needed to.

“You always worry about complacency. Going on the road, I’m not dumb, I know the guys look at the records. They see where they’re at in the standings, and think they’ll just come over here and win, but I tell our guys all the time, nothing is going to be given to you regardless of the opponent,” said Tesdahl. “We have to earn it ourselves. I think we had the ‘give’ attitude in the first five minutes and we had the ‘earn’ attitude in the last 30.”

Still, as strong as the Trojans defense was, Tesdahl thought they could have played even better.

“They run dribble-drives so you’ve gotta stay in front. You can’t relax. We relaxed too many times to start the first half. We allowed [Holy Family’s leading scorer Nathan Hendler] to shoot from his comfort zone and make a couple shots from outside. We have to stay in front of the ball—communicate and rotate. We didn’t do a great job of that the first five minutes but I thought the last 30 we did a much better job,” Tesdahl said.

Hendler led the Fire with 11 points in the defeat. Nine different Holy Family players scored. Guard Lincoln Cizek, who ranks fifth in the Wright County Conference at 16.5 points per game, was held scoreless for the first time this season.

New Prague will finish its regular season with a match against Orono on Friday in New Prague. The Trojans lead the Spartans by one game atop the Wright County East standings. However, Orono won the first meeting between the two. It will be do-or-die for both sides. If Orono wins, it will claim the conference championship. If New Prague wins, it will will be the third consecutive title for the two-time defending champion Trojans. Needless to say, Tuesday’s game felt much like an appetizer for Friday’s main event.

Tesdahl knows it will be a tough battle. Still, he is confident his team can utilize their experience in important games to pull out a victory.

“We’ve got nine seniors on our team. They’ve been in a big-game atmosphere. All those seniors played in a state tournament game their sophomore year, so it’s not like they haven’t seen big games,” he said. “We lost to Orono the first time around, so I think our guys took that to heart. Orono is a very good basketball team and they deserved that win. We’ll have to be ready to go.”

The Trojans will have to play Friday’s entire game with the intensity they showed in the first half on Tuesday. If history is any indication, New Prague is certainly capable of playing to win. Playing in front of their home crowd should benefit the Trojans too.

“New Prague is a great basketball community. The student body is very supportive,” said Tesdahl. “But we lost to Orono the first time around, so I think our guys took that to heart. Orono is a very good basketball team and they deserved that game. We’ll have to be ready to go. I’m glad it’s a home game and it will be a great high school atmosphere on Friday.”

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First Report

New Prague  smothered Holy Family Catholic 60-39 on Tuesday evening at Holy Family Catholic High School.

New Prague’s defense won them the game. The Trojans, ranked No. 9 in Class 4A by Minnesota Basketball News, hounded the Fire, rendering the home team scoreless for more than 15 minutes, with Holy Family Catholic failing to score at all from 9 minutes remaining in the first half, all the way until the 11:25 mark in the second.

Senior guard Jacob Milinkovich scored 19 points to lead the way for the Trojans. His long-range game exploded in the second half—he knocked down five three pointers early in the game’s latter period. Zach Hanson chipped in 11 points for the Trojans (22-3, 8-1).

Nathan Hendler led Holy Family (10-15, 1-8) with 11 points. After the loss, the Fire remain tied with Hutchinson for last place in the Wright County Conference’s East Division.

New Prague will battle Orono on Friday for the Wright County Conference's East Division title in New Prague. If the Trojans can pull out the win at home, it will clinch its third consecutive conference championship.


New Prague's season leading scorer Zach Hanson added 11 points for the Trojans. Photo by Cheryl Myers, SportsEngine

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