Sports
Stars split first two District 11 games
Matthew Semisch
01/13/2015
Bottineau High’s girls’ basketball team didn’t open its District 11 slate the way it wanted to early last week, but the Stars quickly got back on track.
BHS hosted Velva on Tuesday in both teams’ first district game of the season, and the visitors came away with a narrow 60-54 win.
The setback against the Aggies, Stars head coach Joe Bender said, marked an opportunity BHS let slip away.
“We just didn’t handle the pressure very well tonight,” Bender said. “I thought we rebounded well and I thought we took good shots, but we didn’t handle pressure well and that forced us into some silly turnovers, and then you get down 10 or 12 and try to battle back but it’s hard to do that. It was a good game, but we came out on the wrong end of it.”
In the end, the biggest thing that doomed BHS against the Aggies was the Stars’ free-throw shooting. They finished the game 13-for-21 from the charity stripe, including a crucial 5-for-10 during the third quarter.
After entering the halftime break only up 28-26, Velva outscored the Stars 12-9 in that third frame to go up 40-35.
The Aggies then only outscored Bottineau 20-19 in the fourth quarter. In the end, the Stars’ issues at the free-throw line on Tuesday were key.
“Thirteen for 21 is the big difference in a game that’s as close as this one was,” Bender said. “That’s a bummer because we’ve worked a lot on free throws in practice, and we’re normally a very good team in terms of our free-throw shooting, but I guess this means we need to get back in the gym and get back to working on it.”
BHS guard Stephanie Brenden led both teams in scoring with a game-high 23 points.
STARS ROAST RAIDERS
After dropping their first District 11 opener on Tuesday against Velva, BHS rebounded well by defeating Drake-Anamoose 69-31 on Saturday in Drake.
BHS forward Kelsey Bowers had one of her best games of the season to date on Saturday. She finished the game with a double-double after posting 17 points and 13 rebounds.
Stars guard Maria Diepolder also impressed against the Raiders. She ended the game with a team-high 18 points to go along with six rebounds and one assist.
Bottineau (4-5) hosts Rolette-Wolford tonight starting at 7 p.m. The Stars will then visit Towner-Granville-Upham on Thursday and Minot Bishop Ryan on Saturday.