Sports

Braves fall twice at Mandan Holiday Tournament

By Bottineau Courant Staff

12/30/2013

The Bottineau Braves dropped a pair of games this past weekend in the first two days of the Mandan Holiday Tournament while in search of their third win of the season.
Bottineau’s hoops team was toppled by Flasher 74-50 on day one and Turtle Lake-Mercer-McClusky (TLMM) 67-51 on day two in the annual tournament.
The Braves also played in the seventh place game against Hettinger-Scranton on Saturday, but scores and stats were unavailable by press time.
In day one’s loss to the Bulldogs, the Braves fell despite a season and career-high 13-point effort from junior Alex Bristol.

Bottineau fell behind and trailed 18-12 after one quarter. By halftime the lead had been extended to 12 points.

Then the Bulldogs really came to play in the second half.
Flasher started the second half with a 15-2 run and by the end of the third quarter led by 29.

Bottineau caught up a little, but Flasher advanced to the semifinals of the tournament with a 24-point victory.

Zack Schmidt, Taylor Krenz and Peyton Gabrielson combined for 48 points for the Bulldogs, with Krenz leading the way with 18.

Christian St. Claire added nine and Jake Carroll had eight points for Bottineau. Senior Jacob Halvorson had a season-high six points for the Braves in the loss.

On Friday the Braves moved into the consolation bracket where they met up with TLMM.

The Trojans used an aggressive offensive style to get to the free throw line several times and they made 18 of them to earn a 67-51 win.

TLMM took a seven point lead after one quarter and made it 10 by halftime. The lead slowly leaked further from there as it expanded to 15 after three quarters and finished with the 16-point win.

Hunter Jacobs had 21 points for the Trojans in the victory, as he led all scorers.

Garret Pollman and Parker Englehard each had 11 points in the losing effort.

Senior Philip Neubauer had a season-best 10 points for the Braves. Jacob Halvorson continued his strong play with seven points.

The Braves foul trouble hit hard as Pollman, Halvorson and Ethan Kerslake all fouled out as Bottineau committed 24 fouls to the Trojans’ nine.

Bottineau (2-5) will play on the road at 7:30 p.m. on Friday in Kenmare for their next contest.

That will be followed by a trip over to rival Westhope-Newburg next Tuesday, Jan. 7 to open up District 11 play.