Sports

Sioux boys’ first win remains elusive

By Matthew Semisch

01/20/2015

It was there - it had never been more there - and then it wasn’t.

After falling to 0-8 on the season Tuesday night in a 77-20 loss at No. 3 Rugby, a first win of the season for Westhope-Newburg’s (W-N) boys’ basketball team appeared imminent on Friday late on against Stanley.

That is, until it wasn’t. W-N led by as many as 12 in the second half but eventually fell 51-44 in overtime.

The Sioux gave Stanley fits from the start on Friday in Westhope and only trailed the favored Bluejays 20-17 at halftime. W-N then dominated the third quarter and found itself 32-26 heading into the fourth quarter.

Not long after the fourth quarter began, though, the wheels fell off. Stanley drilled the Sioux for 18 points in the final frame of regulation and forced overtime when the teams found themselves tied at 44-44 after 32 minutes of play.

The overtime period belonged entirely to the Bluejays. Stanley outscored W-N 7-0 in the fifth frame, and the Sioux’s only basket in overtime was called off due to a charging foul on W-N forward Chance Kitzman.

Speaking after Friday’s game, Sioux head coach Bob Beaudrie felt that something changed once W-N went ahead by double-digits. His team hadn’t led a game that late yet this season, and he suggested that the Sioux weren’t able to manage that situation.

“We had that one, and (the loss) is nobody’s fault but ours,” Beaudrie said. “We gave up that 10-point lead and got non-aggressive on offense. 

“We keep telling the guys to keep being aggressive and keep attacking, but we haven’t been in that position yet this year so we didn’t know how to approach it,” he continued. “I thought we played our tails off tonight and everyone’s dead tired and they should be, but this loss hurts more than the other seven or eight because we know we had this one. It was ours and we lost it.”

Beaudrie conceded that complacency may have played a small part late in Friday’s game. He also believes, however, that that won’t repeat itself.

“It was just an unusual situation where we hadn’t had that big of a lead before this season and didn’t know how to react to it,” he said. “We got a little complacent on the floor, maybe, but that wasn’t intentional and it won’t happen again. 

“If we’re in that situation again, I guarantee it’s not going to happen again because this is the best we’ve played all year and this is another lesson for us to learn from, and we’re going to keep getting better.”

Even without that waved-off overtime basket, Kitzman led the Sioux in scoring on Friday with 16 points. W-N forward Chase Conway and guard Tate Wyman were also key contributors in posting nine points each.

With the loss on Friday, W-N fell to 0-9 on the season. The Sioux then were handed six days to prepare for their District 11 showdown this Thursday against Bottineau in Westhope.

“We need to get over this one,” Beaudrie said, “and go back to looking forward and get ready for Bottineau next week and play with the same intensity and hopefully get a win out of that one.”

Thursday’s game against the Braves is set to tip off at 7:15 p.m. The Sioux will then visit non-district opponent Dunseith on Friday night.