Sports

Braves remain winless in District 11

By Tyler Ohmann

02/04/2014

The Bottineau Braves dropped two more games this past week to District 11 opponents to remain winless in district play.

The Braves (3-14, 0-6) fell 89-25 to No. 2 Rugby last Tuesday, and then lost 73-59 to Velva last Thursday.

On Tuesday’s contest in Rugby, it was all Panthers from the get go.

Rugby scored 28 points in the first quarter and 49 in the first half to establish dominance to begin.

Brad Heidlebaugh had 28 points to carry the Panthers to their 15th straight victory of the season.

Senior Jacob Halvorson had six points to lead the Braves.
Thursday’s game against Velva was a whole different story.

The Aggies and Braves battled for the first three quarters as each team held their own.

Velva led by four after one quarter, but Bottineau had a strong second quarter led by sophomore Parker Engelhard to led 35-31 at halftime.

The Braves trailed by just three after three quarters, but that’s when it began to go south for Bottineau.

Velva picked up the momentum and their inside game sent them on a strong run to take a double-digit lead, and never relinquish it.

“It seemed like our energy just went away, that the balloon popped,” Engelhard said. “Even the crowd could tell, we could hear them, and we were frustrated at the end.”

“We have to play a full four quarters, and we’ll win a game at districts if we can play like that,” Engelhard added.

Engelhard had a team-best 22 points in his strongest outing of the year. Senior Garret Pollman added 12 points, and Philip Neubauer had eight for the Braves.

Engelhard said that leadership needs to come from someone when it begins to fall apart like it did in the fourth quarter.

“We need leaders to step up, whether it’s the seniors or even me and Christian (St. Claire), we need to step up and get us going again,” Engelhard said.

Michael Thingstad had 27 points inside for the Aggies in the victory, which pushed them to 9-8 on the season and 3-4 in district play.

Bottineau has all but been cemented as the eighth seed for the upcoming District 11 Tournament, which they will host beginning on Feb. 13.

Engelhard has no doubt that there are a couple things to figure out between now and then.

“Defensively we need to be more lock down and communicate,” Engelhard said. “Offensively we can always get better, only putting 60 points on the board isn’t going to win a game against Rugby or Dunseith.”

They will in all likelihood play against Rugby again.