Sports

Braves fall in last-second thriller against Kenmare

By Tyler Ohmann

01/08/2013

The Bottineau Braves basketball team has given their hometown crowd quite a show in two of their home games this season. Unfortunately for the Braves and the crowd, the tightly-contested battles have gone the way of their opponents.

Bottineau fell 49-48 in a see-saw battle last Friday to Region 6 foe Kenmare. The Braves previously lost by two to state-ranked Des Lacs-Burlington at home on Dec. 14.

“We knew coming in that it was going to be a competitive game,” said Braves head coach Nate Simpson about Friday’s showdown with the Honkers. “Hat’s off to them, they made a few more plays than us, and they outworked us on the boards that’s for sure.”

Bottineau jumped out to an early lead, but fell behind 22-19 at halftime. The Braves battled back in the third and fourth quarter and tied and took the lead at one point in the final quarter.

With less than 10 seconds on the clock Bottineau had two chances to take the lead as they were trailing 49-48, but the game slipped just out of their fingers.

“We figured it would be a close game,” Simpson said. “We had our chances, big time chances at the end to win it.”

Braves junior Garrett Pollman paced all scorers with 17 points. Kenmare had three players in double figures and were led by Mason Ankenbauer’s 15 points.

Simpson said the Braves (4-5) were unable to play the style of defense that made them successful earlier in the season. Kenmare was 14-24 from the free throw line, while the Braves never made a trip to the line.

“We were out of position all night, and you can see with that stat, they shot 20-something free throws and we didn’t shoot any,” Simpson said. “And it wasn’t because of bad reffing, it was because we were out of place defensively all night, and that’s not us.”

However, Simpson did feel like the offense was better, especially when the Braves were patient. Senior Taylor Parisien had 11 points, and seven Braves were able to notch baskets.

“First quarter, third quarter, fourth quarter we did pretty well on offense,” Simpson said. “But in the second quarter we shot way too many three pointers and kind of shot them back into the lead.”

“Offensively we’re making strides, it just seems like defensively we’re taking a step back,” Simpson added.

Bottineau also played last night in their District 11 opener in Dunseith, stats and scores were unavailable by press time. However, Simpson knows that the defense needs to come back if the Braves are going to be successful during district play.

“I gotta find kids who know how to be in position defensively, that’s first and foremost,” Simpson said. “It wasn’t everybody, but as a unit we’re not playing the best team defense right now.”

“We have to get back to rebounding the ball and out working teams like we were doing earlier this year,” Simpson added.

Bottineau plays next at 7:30 p.m. on Monday as they host district opponent Sawyer.