Cinderella Spuds Head to State

First State Tournament Appearance in 10 Years

MOORHEAD MN. –“Beginning of the year we didn’t know our lineups quite yet and were still mixing and matching to see what works best. I think as soon as we figured out our lineups and the people who were gonna play and I feel like we just clicked and really played a lot better,” said junior center, Adam Jenkins.

Once the team started to find their identity however they began to realize their potential and string together wins

“When we went on our 5 game win streak we were 3 points away from being on ten game win streak. We lost one game by 1, one game by 2 and then at that point I think everybody knew what we were capable of but maybe a little bit earlier in the season when everybody started playin together everybody started to figure out their roll then we started to click,” said senior point guard, Mekhi Elmore.

“The basketball season, it’s four months long and there are ups, there’s downs peaks there’s valleys and we didn’t play our best basketball for certain parts of the season. We’re playing our best now in march and it takes a little bit of time to find each team’s identity and we found this one now,” said Spuds coach, Matt Elingson.

“We have four game goals every game, defend as a team, rebound take care of the ball, and then just be a great team members,” said Elmore.

After starting 1-4 and coming into the postseason at 14-12, the 6 seed Moorhead Spuds came into the 8 AAAA section tournament under the radar but came out on top.

“It needed 3 good games to get out and it took a defensive performance up at Bemidji, overall team performance here against rogers and a fun one night against Brainard to get it done.”

Senior guard, Mekhi Elmore iced the game with 7 seconds left to lead the team to victory. Elmore’s leadership has been essential and his confidence has been contagious.

“I know I’m the leader of the team and everybody feeds off me whether I’m bringing energy or not bringing energy, whatever I do everyone else will feed off of so I try to be positive bring a lot of energy and make sure everyone is doing the right thing,” said Elmore.

The spuds last trip to state came in 2012 when head coach Matt Elingson was a senior guard.

“I think the biggest lesson I learned from that is to enjoy the moment, enjoy being with your buddies and that’s the lesson I told our kids today before we practiced was we get another opportunity to be with each other for another week and we’re gonna take the most of every opportunity,” said Elingson.

The spuds have an opportunity to take home Moorhead’s first boys basketball championship in 92 years. There keys to success are simple.

“The first is a belief, a belief that we belong with the teams that are gonna go down there and play in the twin cities next week and after that its a commitment to doing the things that we’ve been doing. Defend, rebound, and take care of the basketball,” said Elingson.