Sports

Stars season ends in region's opening round

By Tyler Ohmann

03/13/2012

Winter sports wrapped up in the Bottineau area as the lone remaining team, the Bottineau Stars, were eliminated from the Region 6 Tournament in the first round last Monday.

The Stars fell prey to the top-seed from District 12, the Bishop Ryan Lions 57-35.

However, the score didn’t indicate the close proximity of the two teams in the first half.

The Stars hung with the Lions most of the way through the first half, trailing only 24-21 at halftime to the sixth-ranked team in the state.

However, it was coming out the gate in the second half where the Stars fell into a hole.

“That has kind of been our downfall the whole year is coming out and starting in the third quarter right away,” said senior Whitney Page. “They did that really well, and got a lead on us, but we hung on there for awhile.”

Fellow senior Heidi Artz said that the Lions size gave them a lot of opportunities inside.

“Especially with their size inside, they got way too many good opportunities from us,” Artz said. “We couldn’t convert on the offensive end, and they converted their shots.”

“We got in a hole, and against a team like that you can’t, so it was a struggle from then on,” Artz added.

Artz led the Stars with 11 points and was the only one to finish in double digits in the losing effort.

Fellow senior Trista Bjerk added nine points for the Stars who finished with a record of 12-11.

Both Page and Artz agreed that their basketball careers are done has not really sunk in yet.

“I don’t know if it hit me yet, but Tuesday I listened to the games on the radio and that was when it started sinking in that it was done,” Artz said. “It’s hard, but knowing that every other team, besides the one going to state, is more comforting.”

“It’s starting to sink in more not having practice after school,” Artz added.

For Page the time off afforded from the end of basketball has been a relief.

“We’ve been so busy for how many months, so the past couple nights it’s been nice to do whatever after school,” Page said. “After that wears off, I’ll kind of realize, ‘oh we’re done now.’”

Neither of the seniors plan to play basketball in college. Page plans to walk on in volleyball at the University of North Dakota.

Artz had offers to play college basketball, but decided to focus on school instead.

“I had the chance to go on and play college ball, but I’m just ready to move on to a new chapter in my life and start focusing on school,” Artz said.

Bjerk is the only other senior on the roster that will have left this season.

The season was also the final one at the helm for long-time coach Mike Forsberg, who will step down from his elementary principal post as well at the end of the school year.