Sports

Stars, Sioux battle for district position

By Tyler Ohmann

02/07/2012

A fourth sports meeting between inter county rivals again went Bottineau’s way as the Stars defeated the Sioux 53-30 in girl’s basketball last Tuesday.

Earlier in the boy’s basketball season the Braves beat the Sioux 57-55 in Westhope, and last fall the Braves edged the Sioux in football 14-6 and the Stars swept the Sioux 3-0 in volleyball.

Bottineau jumped out to an early lead on Tuesday taking a 17-7 lead after one quarter and extending it to 35-16 at halftime.

The Stars were relentless on defense using a full court press to create confusion and force turnovers for most of the game.

“We get the turnovers and that goes to points, it has been really good,” said guard Stephanie Brenden of the defense.
Brenden hit three shots from beyond the arc to help rally the Stars in the second and third quarters.

“Tonight I just wanted them to go in, so I got my form going and got them in,” Brenden said.

She finished with nine points.

Brenden, a freshman, has seen her minutes increase this season, and has even cracked the starting lineup in a couple of games.

“It means a lot playing with seniors and is a lot of fun,” Brenden said. “I’m going to miss them next year.”

Bottineau was led by Katryna Hahn’s 12 points and the trio of Trista Bjerk, Heidi Artz and McKenzie Jensen each had seven points a piece.

The win pushed the Stars to 3-2 in district play and 8-7 overall, while the Sioux dropped to 1-4 in the district and 5-10 overall

Westhope-Newburg was led by junior Bailey Tofteland’s 11 points. Fellow junior Jade Teske had nine points in the loss.

The Stars hope that the win can help give them some momentum as they head into the final couple weeks before tournament time.

“Obviously we want to go to regions, but we just want to have fun and keep up our game,” Brenden said.

Stars drop game to Aggies

Trying to use the momentum from Tuesday’s win the Stars hosted Velva in a district match up last Thursday night.

However, the Stars were unable to hold on to a one-point halftime lead and were outscored by 11 in the second half to lead to a 49-39 defeat at the hands of the Aggies.

Bottineau (3-3, 8-8) were led by seniors Heidi Artz and Trista Bjerk who each had 11 points. Artz also added six steals, while Bjerk contributed five assists in the loss.

Also in the mix for Bottineau was senior Whitney Page who led the team with nine rebounds and also had four points and six steals.

Velva’s Jaylen Newman led all scorers with 12 points as the Aggies improved to 6-0 in District 11 play and 14-1 overall.
The Stars play only once this week and that is at 7:30 p.m. tonight at Sawyer for their final district contest of the season.

Panthers hand Sioux seventh straight loss

The Sioux’s spiral continued as they dropped their seventh straight contest last Friday night in a 50-33 loss to District 11 opponent Rugby.

Westhope-Newburg battled with the Panthers in the first half, trailing by only three through one quarter, and sticking within 11 at halftime, but the Panthers found their groove in the second half.

Taylor Wangerin and Aubrey Hovland combined for 26 of Rugby’s 50 points to push them past the Sioux for their fifth district win.

The Sioux were led by junior Hadlee Schell who had eight points. Jade Teske and senior Kylee Conway each had six as the Sioux fell to 1-5 in district play and 5-11 overall.
Westhope-Newburg will close out their district regular season at 7:15 p.m. tonight at Drake-Anamoose.