Sports

Sioux fall to Rugby, beat Stanley

By Bottineau Courant Staff

01/14/2014

After opening the District 11 season last Tuesday with a bang, the Westhope-Newburg (WN) Sioux split a pair of games the rest of the week.

The Sioux were unable to keep their district record perfect as they fell 61-43 to state-ranked Rugby last Thursday.

WN bounced back on Saturday though with a non-district win 64-39 over Stanley.

In Thursday’s loss the Sioux hung with the second-ranked Panthers and trailed by only four points after the first quarter and seven at halftime.

Rugby pulled ahead though in the third quarter as they held the Sioux to five points and built up a 16-point lead.

Braaten led the effort for the Sioux with a 22 point night, but shot just 7-for-20 from the field.

Ethan Miller added 13 points and 14 rebounds, but it was the Panthers that earned the victory.

Brad Heidlebaugh led all scorers and the Panthers with 31 points in the win.

WN put the loss behind them on Saturday and came away with a 64-39 road victory in Stanley to improve to 8-3 on the season and 4-1 on the road.

The Sioux pulled ahead early and led by nine at halftime. A 36-point second half sealed the 25-point win for WN.

Braaten again was big offensively for the Sioux as he finished with 28 points and added seven rebounds, six assists and five steals to go along with it.

Miller was also in double digits with 18 points and added an impressive three blocks.

Chase Conway had his best game of the season since returning from a leg injury. The sophomore finished with seven points and five rebounds in the big win.

Austin Schmidt had 12 to lead the way for the Blue Jays.

Next up for the Sioux they will return to District 11 action with a game at 7:15 p.m. in Towner tonight as they take on the Towner-Granville-Upham Titans.

It will be their only game of the week.

Notes:

Through 11 games senior Hunter Braaten has averaged 24.9 points, 7.3 rebounds, 4.1 assists and three steals per game.