Sports

Braves take sixth in Mandan

By Bottineau Courant Staff

01/02/2013

At last season’s Mandan Holiday Tournament Bottineau cruised to a tournament title, but a lot of things can change in a year, including how a tournament goes.

Bottineau had to work harder this year, and it didn’t quite pay off. The Braves hit the eventual-champions right away, and Shiloh Christian went off in a 64-36 win over Bottineau.

In round two, Bottineau bounced back with a 59-47 win over Wilton-Wing to advance to the fifth-place game. However, on Saturday, the Braves didn’t have quite enough to knock of Flasher, who took home fifth place with a 68-57 win.

First on Thursday, the Braves were decimated by the Shiloh Christian Skyhawks, who out scored Bottineau 32-6 in the opening quarter.

Things did not get much better from there as the Skyhawks wound up with a 28-point win. Garrett Pollman was a bright spot for the Braves as he led the team with 15 points. Junior Jake Carroll had seven.

The Skyhawks drained seven threes in the game and had 18 steals. They were led by Donovan Lambert, who had 22 points.

On Friday, the Braves bounced back in a big way as they were able to come from behind and earn a double-digit victory over Wilton-Wing.

Bottineau trailed by six at halftime, but by the end of the third quarter had tied the game. On a strong fourth-quarter run, Bottineau downed Wilton-Wing 59-47.

Sophomore Parker Engelhard and senior Trevor Wettlaufer each had 11 points to lead Bottineau in scoring. However, the scoring was spread out nicely as Carroll added 10, Pollman nine and junior Phillip Neubauer added eight.

Friday’s win put Bottineau in the fifth-place game against Flasher.

There the Braves ran into a hot Taylor Krenz, who hit six threes and netted 24 points to lead Flasher past Bottineau 68-57.

Bottineau led by five after one quarter, and 35-34 at halftime, but Flasher made a third quarter run and didn’t stop until the game was over.

Senior Jeremiah Aberle led Bottineau with 15 points. Carroll added nine, Neubauer had eight and Taylor Parisien netted seven in the losing effort.
Bottineau fell to 4-4 after the 1-2 tournament in Mandan.

The Braves’ next action will be at 7 p.m. on Friday as they host Kenmare in a region match up.