Caledonia rebounds from state semifinal loss, wins 3rd place game

(ABC 6 News) – It wasn’t the result they hoped for when they began their state tournament run, but the Caledonia Warriors are going home with some hardware.

After a heartbreaking setback to Annandale in the Class AA semifinals Friday night, Caledonia rebounded and got the wire-to-wire victory over Morris Area/Chokia-Alberta Saturday afternoon 74-58 in the third-place game.

It was the final outing for Mr. Minnesota basketball finalist Eli King and he put on a show as he scored 19 points and threw down some rim-rattling dunks.

It was also the final game for Jackson Koepke who led the team with 22 points.

Caledonia never trailed in the game and pounded MAC in the paint, scoring 52 points.

"I think the guys were excited they got another opportunity to play together as friends, buddies or whatever and stuff and they just were going to try to make the best of it, wherever the chips fall they fall," Head Coach Brad King said.

"We competed our butts off today every time they tried to make a comeback somebody hit a shot for us. Some of our bench guys did a fantastic job. Our younger guys.. very proud of the whole group"