Sports

Braves skid extended to 11 straight losses

By Bottineau Courant Staff

02/05/2013

It was another difficult week for the Bottineau Braves basketball team as they played two tough District 11 opponents.

On Tuesday the Braves hosted the Rugby Panthers, who are ranked fourth in the state, and despite a hard-fought game the Braves fell 70-51.

Bottineau put out one of their strongest offensive performances of the season as they scored more than 50 points for the first time since Jan. 17 when the Braves scored 62 in an overtime loss to Westhope-Newburg.

Rugby led from the out set and extended their lead from eight after one quarter to 11 at the break. Kyle Lovcik led all scorers with 26 points.

For Bottineau sophomore Parker Engelhard led the offensive attack with 16 points. Garrett Pollman added 15 points, while senior Trevor Wettlaufer finished with nine points.

The Braves hoped to put an end to their losing streak in Velva on Friday as they traveled to take on the Aggies in Bottineau’s second to last district game of the season.

However, the Aggies jumped out to a big time early lead and were up 19-3 after the first quarter and the Braves were unable to recover.

Bottineau cut the lead to 10 by the end of the third quarter, but Velva hung on for 46-35 victory.

Pollman led all scorers with 17 points for Bottineau. However, Michael Thingstad and Dixon Bauer combined for 23 for the Aggies in the win.
The loss was the 10th straight for the Braves, who have been on a skid since late December. They are 4-13 overall on the season and 0-6 in district play.

Bottineau has one more chance to right the ship before the District 11 tournament on Feb. 14 in Rugby.

Bottineau plays at 5 p.m. on Saturday against St. John in Bottineau.

The Braves also played Drake-Anamoose last night but scores and stats weren’t available by press time.