Sports

Stars struggle against pair of district rivals

By Matthew Semisch

01/27/2015

Coming out of a five-day stretch in which Bottineau High’s girls’ basketball team won three games, the Stars hoped to keep the ball rolling last week against a pair of District 11 rivals.

Unfortunately for BHS, it couldn’t make that happen.

What happened instead was the opposite of what the Stars were hoping for. Bottineau fell 78-66 at home to Sawyer last Tuesday before dropping a 61-49 decision on Friday at Rugby.

The losses dropped Bottineau, which was an even 6-6 going into last week, to 6-8 overall and 2-3 in District 11 play.

BHS had won two of its first three district games earlier this month. After losing at home to Velva on Jan. 6, the Stars rattled off a pair of road wins at Drake-Anamoose (D-A) on Jan. 9 and at Towner-Granville-Upham (T-G-U) on Jan. 15. Losses to Sawyer and Rugby, however, have dropped BHS back down to below the .500 mark against District 11 foes.

SAWYER SEES OFF STARS

Bottineau’s week started at home against Sawyer on Tuesday, and their clash was tight almost from the beginning. The Flashes outscored BHS 23-18 over the first eight minutes before the teams went back to their locker rooms tied at 38-38 at the break.

The third quarter was close, too, with Sawyer taking a razor-thin 53-52 lead into the fourth. The Flashes finished the game off in the final frame, however, outscoring BHS 25-14 in the fourth.

BHS head coach Joe Bender knew that his Stars had their chances to win the game, but they didn’t take advantage.

“We don’t capitalize when it’s the absolute most important time in the game to capitalize,” he said. “We work ourselves all the way back and then there’s a huge possession and we either turn it over or we throw a bad pass or don’t take a good shot. 

“There’s certain times during the game when we have to understand that we need to have the best possession that we possibly can and we need to go to the highest percentage of probability of making a basket and make the momentum come to us,” Bender continued, “and the girls need to understand that, in tight games, one possession is so important and that, when we are in that situation, we are moving the ball and understanding where we need to go to get a high probability of making a shot.”

Kennedy Olson led the Stars with 18 points against the Flashes, while Jocelyn Jahner finished close behind with 17.

RUGBY TACKLES BHS

The Stars then visited Rugby on Friday for another District 11 game. BHS lost this one to the Panthers by a 61-49 count.
Stars forward Maria Diepolder finished the game with a team-high 17 points as well as four rebounds.

BHS (6-8) will host Westhope-Newburg on Thursday and Des-Lacs Burlington on Friday.