Sports

Sioux open season with split

By Tyler Ohmann

12/10/2013

Despite having only nine players on their team (eight right now due to one injury), the Westhope-Newburg (WN) boy’s basketball team still expects a lot of success this season.

“We don’t have a lot of quantity, but I think we have a lot of quality,” said Sioux head coach Bob Beaudrie. “It’s good and bad. It’s bad because we don’t have a lot of depth, and the three guys on the bench haven’t seen any varsity time in their careers.”

“The good thing is that we learned last year that the more experience you get, the better it’s going to make them toward the end of the year,” Beaudrie added.

The Sioux kicked off their season this past week with only those eight players (sophomore Chase Conway is recovering from a lingering football injury) and split their opening week games.

WN fell 70-60 in their season home opener to a good St. John team (now 3-0) last Tuesday, but rebounded with a 64-36 romp over rival Glenburn last Friday night.

Against the Woodchucks in Westhope last Tuesday the game was close in the first half. Both team scored 13 points in the opening quarter, and the Sioux actually led 31-24 at the break.

Beaudrie was happy with how the offense made cuts and scored efficiently in the first half.

Whether it was due to tiredness or something else entirely the Sioux gave up that lead in the third quarter and the Woodchucks never looked back, cruising to a 10-point victory.

“We have to work on our defensive timing,” Beaudrie said. “Offensively we need to work on spacing on drives, and knowing where we should be when one guy’s doing this.”

The Sioux got into some foul trouble, which did not help an already short-staffed team. Junior Chance Kitzman, their lone returning post from a year ago, fouled out in the fourth quarter.

“We got in foul trouble tonight, and that’s kind of a worry coming into the year,” Beaudrie said. “Then we’re throwing guys into positions that they don’t normally play and then things get out of whack.”

The Sioux were led in scoring by senior Hunter Braaten, who had 29 points. Braaten, who’s been playing varsity since eighth grade, finished the game 12-for-23 and also added six rebounds and three steals. Fellow senior Ethan Miller, who is going to be asked to use his 6-foot, 5-inch frame inside more this year after playing wing in years past, finished with 16 points and eight boards in the loss.

“We had a lot of posts last year, and now we only have one post in Chance (Kitzman) that has any experience,” Beaudrie said. “We move Ethan (Miller) down there, and he’s never had to play there in their entire life.”

“You can tell he still wants to be that guard out there, but once he gets used to being that guy in the middle and posting himself up that there is nobody that can guard him with his size and quickness,” Beaudrie added.

Beaudrie of course wanted to win, but he said more important to the Sioux at this stage is to get better.

“I want to win as much as anybody, but as long as we’re improving and playing our best come February and hopefully March, then we’ll be all right,” Beaudrie said. “We’ve done that the past however many years, usually we play our best ball in mid-February and hopefully that continues.”

Dalton Poitra led the Woodchucks with 23 points. Senior Sean Jay added 18 points.

The Sioux did wind up getting their win, but it came against a winless Glenburn squad, and in blowout fashion.

WN led 39-11 at halftime as they held the Panthers to only a single point in the second quarter. The Sioux closed out the game and ended with their first win with a 64-36 victory.

Braaten was again the leader for the Sioux as he dropped 25 points on the Panthers on 10-of-22 shooting. He finished with a double-double with 10 rebounds, and added seven assists and four steals in the win.

Miller notched 12 points and seven boards before fouling out. Kitzman played well inside and led the Sioux with 12 rebounds and added eight points, while limiting his fouls.

Senior Hunter Ballantyne also played well for WN as he had 10 points and six boards.

The Sioux, now 1-1, will kick off the Velva Invitational on Thursday with a game against Surrey. Depending on their outcomes they could play more times in the tournament over the weekend.

WN will not play another home game until Jan. 7 when they host Bottineau in Westhope.