Warriors roll over Kelliher-Northome 97-81 - P13

The Red Lake Warriors hosted the Kelliher-Northome Mustangs on Thursday, January 30, 2014, and right from the beginning it was a fast paced game with both sides exchanging baskets and keeping pace. The Warriors began to pull away at the half as they led 53-39.

The fast-pace continued in the second half, and the Mustangs could not comeback, as the Warriors rolled to a 97-81 victory.

With Ryan Holthusen hitting a 2-pointer in the second half that gave Red Lake their 88th point on the night and his 33rd point, he became Red Lake's all-time scoring leader with 2277 points in his career. He had needed 32-points to tie the record of 2276 held by his dad, Randy Holthusen.

Delwyn Holthusen Jr., Randy's uncle, is quoted as saying on Facebook that between himself, Randy and Ryan, the Holthusen Boys will have scored about 6000 points as Red Lake Warriors in their combined careers.

It was quite an accomplishment. The game was stopped and Ryan was presented with the game ball.

At the end of the game, fellow students, friends, family and even Kelliher-Northome students and parents stayed to offer their congratulations to Holthusen for the accomplishment.

Ryan is a senior and will graduate this year. He was on the RLHS varsity squad since he was in the 7th grade.

There are still a few games left and Ryan should be able to add even more points to the record.

The Warriors play in Thief River Falls on Saturday, February 1, at 1 PM, then at home again on Monday, February 3, 2014 with Blackduck, followed by another home game with Laporte on Thursday, February 6.

According to the Bemidji Pioneer, the Section 8A East boys basketball playoffs should be very entertaining as six teams are bunched within 15 QRF points and any of them could eventually rise to the top.

As of this week Red Lake is leading the pack with a QRF of 70.4 but right on the Warriors' heels is Fosston at 67.3

Not far behind are Northome-Kelliher (60.4), Walker-Hackensack-Akeley (60.1), Cass Lake-Bena (58.7) and Blackduck (56.9).

Trailing the Section 8A East leaders are Mahnomen (35.8), Laporte (26.4), Clearbrook-Gonvick (21-8), Bug O Nay Ge Shig (15.4) and Lake of the Woods (13.9).

WHA currently leads the Northland Conference standings with a 7-1 record while Cass Lake-Bena and Red Lake share second at 6-2. Not far behind is Blackduck at 5-3 while Northome-Kelliher is 4-4, Nevis 4-4, Pine River 1-8 and Laporte 0-8.