Irish boys basketball wins three more: Stokman beats school record

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The Maple Lake boys basketball team continued their winning ways last week, tacking three more wins to their nearly perfect record and setting an individual record while doing it.
The Irish kicked off the week with a 72-56 win over Paynesville on Monday, Feb. 9, then beat Kimball on the road on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 66-60.
It was during the Kimball game that Irish senior guard David Stokman broke the all-time school record set by Mitch Wurm in 2011.
They closed out the week with a 74-54 win over Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa, cementing at least a tie in the Central Minnesota Conference and boosting their overall record to 23-1.
The Irish played another solid game on both sides of the ball against the Bulldogs Monday night. By the end of the first half they were up 41-30.
Maple Lake continued to move the ball on the offense to set up open shots at the basket to out-score Paynesville 31-26 in the second half.
Stokman led with 18 points and Andrew Schonnesen had 17. The other Irish player scoring in double digits for the team was Chase Olson who contributed 14 points and five rebounds.
Tuesday night’s match-up against the Kimball Cubs was a special one. Not only did Stokman break the school scoring record, it was the team’s Coaches vs. Cancer Game.
“At this game we show support for people and families that are dealing with this horrible disease,” coach Tim Staloch said. “Before the game we talked about how lucky we are to be healthy and enjoying a game we love. We talked about how we say we “battle” in the game, but it doesn't compare at all to the battle that families dealing with cancer are going through.”
This year the Irish gave special recognition to Dawn Klabunde by wearing t-shirts in their pre-game warm-ups to support her. The Maple Lake teacher was diagnosed with cancer in 2014.
Irish fans also got into the spirit.
“The pink clad student section was awesome throughout the game,” Staloch said.
Early in the first half, Stokman met his goal to beat Wurm’s 1,534 career point record. All he needed going into the game was two baskets. Stokman, who has been one of the Irish’s leading scorers all year, quickly produced the needed points and the game was immediately stopped to present him with the game ball.
Stokman was congratulated by teammates, coaches, and the Kimball players. He then delivered the game ball to his parents in the stands. 
“David is very deserving of this record,” Staloch said. “He has put a tremendous amount of hard work into the game of basketball. He is a fantastic three-point shooter and can score in many different ways. Despite scoring all those points, David is a very unselfish player and is far more interested in team success than individual honors.”
Once the game was re-started, the Irish fell back on their “excellent” team defense to hold Kimball to 21 points, while Maple Lake went on to score 35.
The Cubs made a run in the second half, outscoring the Irish 39-31, but it was too little, too late and the Irish celebrated yet another victory.
“We rebounded very well, especially on the offensive end where we outscored Kimball 19-7 in second-chance points,” Staloch said.
Stokman and Schonnesen led scoring with 19 points each.
The Irish came out extremely focused against B-B-E on Friday and had one of their better shooting nights of the season, Staloch said.
Stokman and Schonnesen shot five-for-nine behind the three-point line. Schonnesen produced 29 points Friday and Stokman had 26 plus 10 assists.
“This team has rattled off 12 straight conference wins since dropping the first conference game of the year at Eden Valley way back on December 5,” Staloch said. “Our team continues to get better because they keep working hard, pushing themselves and each other. They have stayed focused and continue to play unselfish basketball. We are happy about what we have done so far, but we are not satisfied.”
The Irish have only one more regular season game before Section 5-2A tournament time. On Thursday, Feb. 19, Maple Lake will host Pierz. This will also be the last CMC game of the season.
 

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