Tower City, ND (NewsDakota.com) – The #9 Oakes Tornadoes haven’t been a #1 seed in a District Tournament in years now they are back on top as they won their 8th straight game to clinch the top spot for the District 1 Tournament in Wahpeton, beating Maple River 62-48.

The game started out slowly for Oakes as the Raiders came out firing and out rebounding the Tornadoes early. They’d build themselves a 16-11 lead through the 1st quarter. Oakes would come out swinging in the 2nd quarter as they’d shut down Maple River’s offense forcing them to go 2/10 on the quarter while they started hitting long range shots. The Tornadoes would outscore the Raiders 18-7 in the 2nd to claim a 29-23 lead at the half.

There would be nothing between the teams in the 3rd quarter as Maple River would cut the lead by one to get it to 42-37 going to the 4th. Oakes would then put the petal to the metal in the final frame as they would outscore the Raiders 20-11 to take home the 62-48 victory.

The Tornadoes had 3 players with scoring in the double digits including the leading all around scorer Eddie Garza who’d get the Bank North Player of the Game with 17 points (5/13 FG, 6/10 FT). Roddek Schmit would have 15 (6/11 FG, 3/4 FT) and Braysen Sagert had 14 (6/10 FG). The leading scorer for Maple River would be Tee Sylling with 15 (7/12 FG).

With the win Oakes earns the top spot in District 1 and will play either Enderlin or Richland in the opening round of the District 1 Tournament on February 28th at NDSCS in Wahpeton. Next up however they will wrap up District play looking to complete an undefeated District season against Enderlin on Saturday February 15th in Enderlin the game will start at around 1:00 pm.