Balanced scoring and strong defense propelled the Jordan boys basketball team to back-to-back home wins.
Senior Afton Koch scored 16 points to lead the Hubmen to a 64-55 victory over Southwest Christian Dec. 10 in the team’s first Wright County East Conference game. Jordan went into the contest off a 53-42 triumph over New Prague, a Section 2AAA foe.
Hubmen coach Matt Urbanek said the win over New Prague was a hard-fought defensive contest.
“We finally broke it open with some timely three-point shooting by (junior) Seth Young and Koch in the second half,” Urbanek said “And we were able to speed the game up to a faster tempo in the second half, which benefits our style of play.
“Our guys played with a lot of energy and we had contributions by a lot of players.”
Koch finished with 11 points for Jordan, as did senior Mack Schmidt. Young scored nine points while senior Nate Kes had eight and junior Jack Olson chipped in five.
Senior Carter Runge added four points for the Hubmen.
In beating Southwest Christian, Jordan (3-1 overall) led 37-20 at the break and never looked back. Young and Kes were both in double figures with 12 and 11 points, respectively.
Schmidt added nine points while junior Logan Young scored seven and Runge had six.
Jordan will close out 2022 with back-to-back road games against Mankato West Dec. 28 and Norwood Young America Dec. 29. Mankato West is also a Section 2AAA foe.
Last winter was Jordan’s first as a Class 3A program. The team lost in the first round of the playoffs to Marshall (83-54).
Section 2AAA features one ranked team – No. 9 Mankato East, the defending champion. The rest of the field includes New Ulm, St. Peter and Worthington. Mankato East is the defending champion.
Section play starts March 7 with the quarterfinals. The semifinals are March 11 and the title game is March 16. The final two rounds will be played at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter.
This year’s Class 3A state tournament is set for March 21-25 at Williams Arena on the University of Minnesota campus.
Jordan has made two state appearances in its history with the first one back in 2010 and the last one in 2018. The Hubmen made the Section 2AA title game in 2020, but the game was never played due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
