Sports

Braves earn split

By Bottineau Courant Staff

01/14/2014

After the Bottineau Braves dropped their district opener last Tuesday against Westhope-Newburg, they hoped to turn things around in their second district contest against Dunseith back in Bottineau.

However, the Braves could not get past the Dragons as they were a step behind them all game in a 75-68 Dunseith win.

The Braves trailed by three after one quarter and by six at halftime. They worked themselves into the game in the second, but trailed by five after three quarters and the Dragons went on to win by seven.

Corey Poitra and Trace Azure combined for 42 points for the Dragons and Dakota Gunville added 15.

For the Braves Parker Engelhard had 15 points and Garret Pollman had 14 points in the loss. Christian St. Claire added 10 points and senior Philip Neubauer had eight.

However, the Braves bounced back from that loss when they held off Kenmare 48-45 in a make up game last Friday in Kenmare.

Bottineau led throughout, and were up by five at halftime and 37-26 after three quarters. The Honkers made a run in the fourth quarter, but Bottineau held them off to snap a five game losing skid.

Five players scored 47 of the 48 points for the Braves as they shared the load offensively. Pollman and Engelhard had 10 a piece, while Neubauer, St. Claire and Jake Carroll each had nine points.

Hunter Harris had 12 points for the Honkers to lead all scorers.
The win improved Bottineau’s record to 3-8 on the season. The Braves are 0-2 in District 11 play.

Bottineau will look to improve their district record as well as they play at 7:30 p.m. tonight in Sawyer.

The Braves will return home on Saturday to take on Lewis and Clark-Berthold at 7:15 p.m.