Sports

Stars punch their ticket

By Matthew Semisch

02/17/2015

VELVA - This season’s Bottineau High girls’ basketball team seems to have something against doing things the easy way.

The Stars went into last week’s Class B District 11 tournament as the No. 4 seed of the seven teams that met in Velva. BHS couldn’t call that unfair, as it finished the regular season with a 9-10 overall record and lost four of its six games against district rivals.

Bottineau arrived in Velva with that baggage, but the Stars also carried into the district tournament a little momentum. They finished their regular season two weeks ago with victories at both Our Redeemer’s and Langdon, and BHS hoped to get two more wins in Velva.

Two wins at districts, the Stars knew, would send Bottineau to next week’s Class B Region 6 tournament at the Minot Auditorium.

The Stars eventually granted their own wish. BHS defeated No. 6-seed Towner-Granville-Upham (T-G-U) 60-42 on Thursday before falling to top-seeded Rugby 66-32 the following day. A 74-66 victory over No. 3 Sawyer on Saturday, however, sent the Stars Minot-bound and forced the Flashers into the offseason.

Senior BHS forward Stephanie Brenden, who was named Saturday as the District 11 girls’ basketball senior athlete of the year, proved herself essential against the Flashes. In the region-qualifier game with Sawyer, Brenden finished with a game-high 27 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists.

“She’s going to be so missed,” Stars head coach Joe Bender said of Brenden after Saturday’s game, “and everybody’s going to realize how good of a player she is when she’s not out there on the court for a high school game. 

“They’ll understand just how hard the girl works and how much we appreciate everything she does, and today she just had a fantastic game.”

Brenden and fellow BHS senior Kennedy Olson were later named to the All-District 11 team.

By virtue of knocking off third-seeded Sawyer, Bottineau earned the No. 3 seed for District 11 going into next week’s Class B Region 6 tournament at the Minot Auditorium. The Stars will face Berthold in the quarterfinals on Monday at 7:30 p.m.

“I’m glad we get to go at least a week further,” Brenden said. “We’re all excited to try and keep what we’ve got going.”