Braham beats Jackson County Central for Class 2A crown

Braham High School boys' basketball coach Jeff Eklund doubles as principal at Braham Elementary, and he said for the past few days there has been no shortage of people coming into his office.

For once, it has been for a good reason — to wish Eklund and his Bombers luck in the Class 2A state tournament.

The Braham basketball community is a tight one, and that's part of why the tension was so high in Saturday's state title game against Jackson County Central.

The Bombers beat the Huskies 96-90 to win their first state championship since claiming three consecutive crowns from 2004-06. But the victory didn't come easily despite leading by as much as 24 points in the first half.

Eklund kept looking up at the clock in the second half, watching the time slowly tick away — 18 minutes, 15 minutes, 12 minutes and so on.

The nerves were getting tighter for the Bombers, whose 50-29 halftime lead kept shrinking.

Braham's lead dwindled to just five with three minutes, 24 seconds left.

"All season long, they've hung together," Eklund said. "They've made plays when they need to make plays. They keep coming after it."

Chris Olson led Braham with 33 points and Ryan Larson had 28. The Bombers (31-2) also got solid contributions from John Larson (16 points) and Alec Olson (15), including nine in the final six minutes.

Braham dug in on defense and hit free throws down the stretch to fend off Jackson County Central's comeback attempt, similar to the way the Bombers held off St. Croix Lutheran in Friday's semifinal.

The Huskies (25-6) scored 61 points in the second half. Matt Ringkob and Colton Timmer each scored 21 for JCC, and Bodey Behrends had 16 points, 12 rebounds and nine blocks.

"That's the one thing I said to them at halftime — we do have the firepower to come back," JCC coach Trent Sukalski said.

"Keep finding ways to score," he said.