Sports

Braves remain undefeated with pair of wins

By Tyler Ohmann

12/13/2011

Following double digit wins over both Des Lacs-Burlington and Langdon this past week, the Bottineau Braves remained undefeated at 4-0.

Braves snare Lakers

First on Friday the Braves strong effort throughout allowed them to cruise past the Des Lacs-Burlington Lakers 68-50 on the road.

The Braves led the entire way stretching what was a six point lead at the end of the first quarter to a 15 point lead at halftime.

The Braves slipped slightly in the final period, as they led by only eight with a little over five minutes left, but senior Justin McCloud took over and kept the Lakers at bay.

The senior trio of McCloud, Mark LaCroix and Devon Grenier powered the Braves offense.

LaCroix and McCloud led all scorers with 23 points a piece. Grenier added 16, as the seventh-ranked team in North Dakota plowed past a tough Laker squad.
The Lakers were led by Tanner Holte who had 18 points.

Braves rumble past flightless Cardinals

Last night the Braves again came away with a positive result in a 65-42 win over the Langdon Cardinals at home in Bottineau.

The Braves were in control during the entirety of the contest, and even came away with some hefty bench minutes. They led by as much as 32 in the second half, but saw the lead dwindle into the teen’s late in the fourth.

Though a 23-point win is a good thing, Braves Head Coach Nate Simpson was far from pleased.

“I’m severely disappointed in our lack of effort on defense tonight,” Simpson said. “We weren’t ready to play at all.”

Simpson continued his dissatisfaction with the defensive effort in the game.

“Langdon is an inexperienced team, and we are a very experienced team,” Simpson said. “We played against much better teams and gave much better effort and the result was the same.”

The poor defense Simpson said stemmed from lack of effort and laziness.

“We came out and just played lackadaisical,” Simpson said of the effort. “We didn’t give any effort on defense.”

Overall, Simpson was just unhappy with the performance of his players.

“I guess I’m just at a loss tonight. I thought it was extremely subpar,” Simpson said. “If we would have played a Des Lacs-Burlington tonight we would have lost by 15.”

The Braves are 4-0 this season after their two wins this week and wins over Mohall-Lansford-Sherwood and Rolla the week prior.

The Braves will play again next Monday at home as part of a girl’s and boy’s double header against Our Redeemer’s. The game is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m.