Sports

Stars grind out win

By Tyler Ohmann

01/15/2013

In a gritty, defensive battle the Bottineau Stars earned their second win of the season last Tuesday with a 36-34 win over the visiting Langdon Cardinals.

Katryna Hahn came up big for the Stars with a double-double in the victory. The senior snagged a team-high 15 points, while scoring a team-best 10 points.

“We actually moved the ball on offense as well as we have all year,” said Stars head coach Joe Bender. “Instead of one or two passes and throwing up a shot, we moved it around really well.”

The Stars played strong, defense in the game, allowing only 20 Langdon points through the first three quarters. Both teams ramped up the scoring in the final quarter, but the Stars hung on to a slim lead to win.

The Stars did turn the ball over as well, as they committed 29 turnovers in the game, something that Bender hopes they can improve on.

“Negatively I think we had 29 turnovers, and it was the same old, same old, just inexperience and bad habits in passing and not being on the same page,” Bender said. “It’s something we need to improve on.”

Sophomore Stephanie Brenden led the defense as she swiped six steals. She also added five points, five rebounds and four assists.

Also contributing was junior Megan Saville. Saville scored eight points off the bench, while grapping seven rebounds.

Bender said that the team was trying to be more patient on the offensive side, and that it began working against the Cardinals.

“We’re trying on getting four or five really good passes in a set before we shoot,” Bender said. “That way we get a better percentage on our shot.”

Following the win the Stars improved to 2-4 on the season.

Bottineau now enters the part of the season where faces get familiar and teams are nearby towns—district play. As far as the competition goes, Bender believes it will be pretty fierce.

“Right now I think Velva is really, really strong, but other than that I think the district is going to be really competitive,” Bender said. “There are a lot of equal teams in the district, and we’ve been playing this tough schedule all year, so now we get to start playing our district teams, and that’s going to help us.”

Season tests await the Stars as they begin their Distrct 11 season with a game at Towner-Granville-Upham on Thursday.

“The girls are really excited to go down to Towner,” Bender said. “We’re just going to try and play better ball, not turn the ball over so much and go through our offensive set. I think it’s going to happen.”

“We get Danielle (McDonald) back this week, and she’s ready and eager to go, so that’s also really going to help our team out,” Bender added.

The Stars also played at Mohall-Lansford-Sherwood last night, but scores and stats weren’t available by press time.