Sports

Sioux advance to Region 6 tournament with runner-up finish

By Tyler Ohmann

02/19/2013

The Westhope-Newburg (WN) Sioux boy’s basketball team went into the District 11 Tournament as the third seed, but left with a runner-up finish thanks to two big wins against teams that beat them during the regular season.
The Sioux notched an opening round 61-39 over Towner-Granville-Upham (TGU) and then pounded second-seeded Drake-Anamoose 71-49 to advance to the title game.

However, in the title tilt the Sioux were dispatched 83-50 by top-seeded and state-ranked Rugby.

The tournament started great for the Sioux who earned 22-point victories over teams that had bested them in the regular season.

First on Thursday the Sioux used a 21-point first quarter to breeze by the TGU Titans.

WN outscored sixth-seeded TGU 35-20 in the second half to extend their lead and advance to the semifinals.

The Titans had beaten the Sioux back on Jan. 15 in overtime in Westhope.

“We basically just tweaked what we did against those teams, we went back, watched tape and broke down some things and looked at the individual players and how we could stop some people,” said Sioux head coach Bob Beaudrie. “And I told them that if we kept playing as a team, kept playing intense that we would do well.”

Junior Hunter Braaten led the Sioux with 25 points and five steals. He also added seven rebounds.

Also with a strong performance in the win was senior Kodie Hancock, who had 12 points and a team-high 16 rebounds.

A tournament win under their belt the Sioux then had to face a Drake-Anamoose team who had beaten the Sioux 66-53 back on Jan. 24.

However, Friday’s semifinal belonged to Braaten and the Sioux.

Braaten played terrifically on offense, netting another 27 points. The Sioux went up by 11 at the break and never stopped. In fact, the Sioux’s strongest quarter came in the fourth as they stymied a Raider comeback and scored 25 points to make it a 22-point win.

“Going into the game with Drake-Anamoose, we knew they were going to make threes pointers, but they can’t get any rebounds, that was the key,” Beaudrie said. “And offensively we just ran the floor, ran the snot out of them, and we did that.”

“The last time we played them we didn’t run hardly at all or board, so that was our main focus, and we had them tired by the end of the game,” Beaudrie added.

Though Braaten led the Sioux with 27 points in the win, it was the defense of Karlie Hancock that had Beaudrie happy.

Hancock, who for most of the night guarded Raiders big man Tanner Volson, held Volson to only three points. Hancock also scored eight points on 4-of-5 shooting and grabbed five rebounds.

“Karlie did a great job on Towner’s Bacon and Volson from Drake-Anamoose,” Beaudrie said. “When he was guarding them I think gave up maybe six points and five rebounds against two All-Region players, so he did a heck of a job.”

Beaudrie was happy with how his team did in the first two rounds.

“The first two games I thought we played great,” Beaudrie said. “We played intense, we played together, passed the ball well and had great teamwork.”

However, things unraveled a bit in Saturday’s championship match up against host and top-seeded Rugby.

The Panthers used crowd noise and energy to break the game wide open from the get go. Before they knew it the Sioux were trailing 24-4 after one quarter to the Panthers.

“This last game we just got rattled,” Beaudrie said. “We got rattled right away, and everyone tried to do their own thing, and that just doesn’t work.”

“When you get down 13-2, 15-4, that’s hard to come back from, especially when you’re doing things you aren’t supposed to be doing,” Beaudrie added.

The Sioux were able to compose themselves enough to not fall behind much further heading into halftime.

However, the Sioux weren’t able to deal with the Panthers athleticism and they went on to deal an 83-50 blow to the Sioux.

Braaten did finish with 21 points in the loss. His fourth straight game with more than 20 points.
However, despite the loss the Sioux will advance to the Region 6 Tournament as the second-seed from District 11. The Region tournament begins on Feb. 25 in Minot.

“We’re going to learn from it, we’re not 30 points worse than Rugby and hopefully we get another chance to prove that,” Beaudrie said. “We should be disappointed that we lost, and the way we lost, but after tonight we have to forget about it and just learn from it.”

“We have five, six days to prepare for another team that we can compete with, and just go from there,” Beaudrie added.

He knows that the Sioux are going to have to play the Panthers again if they hope to advance to state.

“They’re a tough team, I don’t know who’s going to beat them,” Beaudrie said. “I’m just hoping that we get the last chance, and that it’s us.”

“That has to be our focus, our goal and play with that intensity that we want to get after them again,” Beaudrie added.

The Sioux are 16-6 overall on the season and will play the second game on Feb. 25 at the Auditorium in Minot. WN will play the third-seeded team out of District 11, the Our Redeemer’s Knights. The Knights narrowly defeated Surrey to land themselves in the region tournament.

Junior Hunter Braaten was the lone Sioux player to be named to the All-District team.