Baker not worrying about leg

Cole Baker probably shouldn't be playing in the Class A boys basketball state tournament this week.

After missing the majority of the football season with a broken leg, the Dickinson High senior healed up just in time for the basketball season.

But, when Baker aggravated the fracture in early January, doctors told him to sit out six weeks.

Baker insistently made the decision to take off just three weeks off, which kept him out only four games.

"It's my senior season, I didn't really want to sit out a lot," Baker said. "I just wanted to make sure I contributed to my team. I just wanted to stay out and play. A little hairline fracture wasn't going to keep me out of the game I love."

Baker is a player the Midgets love to have on the floor in crunch time too.

While sophomore Joe Hanstad is without a doubt the Midgets' go-to scorer -- he leads the state with 27 points per game -- Baker has hit several big shots this season, including a few that lifted Dickinson to wins. He averages 10.7 points per game while shooting 34 percent from the field and 77 percent from the free-throw line.

Baker's most memorable shot of his career may very well be the controversial game-winner in the final second of a 68-67 victory over Williston at home in the regular season, which happened just a week before reinjuring his leg.

Baker's most recent big basket came in the opening round of the West Region tournament when his 3-pointer with 85 seconds remaining proved to be the difference in Dickinson's 56-53 victory.

"Cole has been the kid to hit the big shot," Dickinson coach John Wilson said. "His biggest thing is when he gets his feet set and he gets in rhythm, he's a very good shot."

Baker knows he's rarely going to be the Midgets' leading scorer and that's fine with him, as long as he's able to make a difference.

"A lot of teams are going to key on Joe, everyone knows that," Baker said. "But there's got to be other x-factors on the team, different go-to guys here and there. I just try and fit one of those spots."

Baker long ago solidified that role.

Now he hopes to use it to help the Midgets do some damage in the state tournament few thought they could even reach when the season began.

"We knew we could make it," Baker said. "A lot of people may not have thought it, but we, as a team, knew we could make it."

As for the leg, it still hurts. But, Baker isn't going to let the pain bother him as he heads into the final days of his high school basketball career.

"Every once in a while, it'll throb or I'll make a plant and it'll have a sharp pain," Baker said. "But when I get my adrenaline going, I don't really notice it."