Sports

Sioux games produce very different outcomes

By Bottineau Courant Staff

01/28/2014

A pair of District 11 games did not go as expected for the Westhope-Newburg Sioux boy’s basketball team this week.

First on Thursday the Sioux blew an early fourth quarter lead against Drake-Anamoose on the home court to fall 54-52. On Friday night the Sioux did the opposite coming back from a six-point halftime deficit to win 64-55 in Velva.

In Thursday’s loss the Sioux led early and were up 11-9 after one quarter. The Raiders made a run in the second quarter to take a 25-19 halftime lead, but the Sioux offense exploded with a 21-point third quarter to take a four-point lead heading into the fourth.

From there it was a see-saw battle until the Sioux began falling behind and were forced to foul.

Down three with less than 10 seconds left the Sioux attempted to steal the inbounds, but instead had to foul Lee Reinowsky.

Fortunately for the Raiders he hit both free throws to go up five, because WN’s Hunter Braaten drained the half court shot that could have forced overtime.

Braaten finished with 21 points, six rebounds and six assists to lead the Sioux. Ethan Miller added a team-best nine rebounds and eight points, and sophomore Chase Conway had 10 points.

For the Raiders senior center Tanner Volson had 18 points.

On Friday it was another back-and-forth game, but this time it took a fourth-quarter surge by the Sioux to come back and win.

WN led 12-9 after one quarter, but fell behind by six at halftime. The Sioux took the lead by one after they held the Aggies to seven third quarter points.

However, it was a 31-point fourth-quarter scoring explosion that earned the nine-point victory for the Sioux.

The majority of that scoring came from Braaten, who finished with 28 points thanks to 18 made free throws.

Junior Chance Kitzman added 13 points and a team-best nine boards, while Miller had 15 points. Sophomore Reese Schell threw in eight points in the win.

Chris Peterson had 20 points to lead the Aggies.

The win improved the Sioux to 10-4 overall on the season and 3-2 in District 11 play.

WN closes out their district schedule for the regular season this week with games against Sawyer and Dunseith.

The Flashes will play at 7:15 p.m. tonight in Newburg, and the Dragons will play on Friday in Westhope.