Brainerd’s Isaiah Shropshire, left, dribbles around Tyner’s Sadik Spence Saturday at Brainerd High School.It wasn’t as easy as the last time for Tyner, but it didn’t have to be. All the Rams needed to do was defeat Brainerd on Saturday to win the District 6-AA boys’ high school basketball regular-season title, and they did so, 74-63 at Brainerd.
The Rams beat the Panthers by 22 points back in December, which meant Brainerd (18-6, 10-12) would’ve needed to win by more than that Saturday, or get some help from Central, which hosts Tyner on Tuesday, to win the district regular season. For a long time the Panthers stayed with the Rams, but guard play at the end enabled Tyner (18-3, 11-0) to score the game’s final seven points.
“That’s been our goal all along,” Rams coach Gerald Harris said of winning the regular-season championship. “We’ve still got a tough game left at Central. The district tournament then starts the season all over again.
“I thought we made made some really good decisions down at the end. We hit some tough shots, too.”
Harris said he was particularly proud of his guys dealing with the environment. It was senior night for Brainerd and also honored the 30-year anniversary of the Panthers and Lady Panthers winnning Class AAA state titles in the same season.