Blast from the Past: a monster of a game

Good grief! What a monster game!

It was Friday, February 17, 1984. The Brooten Buccaneers boys' basketball team needed just one more win in the Prairie Conference to claim the title outright. That night the Buccaneers hosted the Clarissa Bucs, who brought a young but talented team to Brooten. It was no matter, as Brooten was on a mission and easily dismantled the Bucs in an 83-46 win.

For the game, senior forward Dan Freese poured in 33 points while hauling down 20 rebounds to go with six blocked shots. Good gravy!!!! It was a career high in points and rebounds for him. He ultimately finished that season averaging five blocked shots per game. Wow.

Also that night, fellow senior Mike Marthaler dumped in 17 points while eclipsing the 1,000-point mark for his career. He swished a free throw with 3:59 left in the fourth quarter on a one-and-one situation to meet the 1,000 points mark.

For the game, Brooten out-rebounded Clarissa 55 to 30! Their field goal percentage was sizzling 55 percent (34-for-62), and they also made 15 of 25 free throws compared to Clarissa making good on just four of 15 free shots. With the win the Buccaneers claimed the Prairie Conference title for themselves, a feat they last earned prior to that in the 1975-1976 season.

Brooten was seeded No. 2 in the west half of District 20 for 1984. They went 1-1 in the playoffs with a season-ending loss to No. 3-seeded Litchfield in the district quarterfinals.

On a very sad note, as posted earlier on this blog, Dan passed away this past weekend at the age of 53 years; his Celebration of Life will be Sunday, November 25 at the Sunburg Community Center from 1 to 4 p.m. I have learned quite a few fun bits and pieces about Dan's high school years. His obituary will be in this week's Voice.

Rest in peace, Dan. You will be missed by many. You are surely with the angels above us.