Sports

Stars down Sawyer, solidify fourth seed

By Bottineau Courant Staff

02/14/2012

Bottineau locked up the fourth seed for the District 11 tournament with a 70-36 win over Sawyer in their only game this past week on Tuesday evening in Sawyer.

The Stars scored 38 first half points to take a 23-point halftime lead and expanded that lead in the second half to win their eight game of the season and enter the playoffs with a 4-3 district record.

Senior Whitney Page led the Stars with 16 points and a pair of other Stars ended the night in double figures with fellow seniors Heidi Artz scoring 13 and Trista Bjerk dropping 11 on the Flashes (0-7, 2-14) .

Page also added six steals and five rebounds, while Artz had five assists, four rebounds and four steals. Bjerk had five steals and sophomore Courtney Callagher shared the team-high with five boards.

Sawyer was led by Kyleen Anderson’s 12 points.
The Stars shot 32.9 percent in the win, but nabbed 25 steals as a team, while turning the ball over only eight times.

The win pushed the Stars to 8-9 overall on the season with three games remaining in the regular season.

The Stars close out the season this week with games at Des Lacs-Burlington at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday and senior night in Bottineau at 7:30 p.m., Friday night.

Velva captured the top seed, with Towner-Granville-Upham second and Rugby third heading into the District 11 tournament, which begins on Feb. 24 in Towner.

The Stars will play fifth-seeded Dunseith to open the tournament. The top four finishers in the tournament will advance to the Region 6 tournament in Minot beginning Monday, March 4.