Minot rallies, upends JHS

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Loni Bryantt was in the zone, and the Jamestown girls basketball team had a hard time stopping her late in Saturday’s game.

Instead of driving to the basket, Bryantt stepped back to drain a 3-pointer and banked in another one off the glass as the 5-foot-5 guard scored 11 straight points.

The run helped Minot overcome a 16-point deficit, eventually escaping Jamestown with a 64-60 West Region victory at the JHS gym.

“I was definitely feeling it tonight,” Bryantt said. “I just tried to keep my head and not think about it much and do what I had to do.”

Jamestown coach Andy Skunberg credited Bryantt, who led all scorers with 23 points on 7-of-13 from the field. Sierra Duttenhefer added 15, and Cassie Askvig had 12.

“(Bryantt) even banked one in. What do you do about that?” Skunberg said. “She gets on a roll, nothing you can really do about it.

“She had a pretty good day; that’s not what killed us. We killed ourselves.”

Minot forced 20 Jamestown turnovers, and a 4-of-14 effort from the free-throw line didn’t help the Blue Jays, either. Minot also overcame a nearly 50-percent shooting effort by Jamestown.

“This is huge; Jamestown is a good team,” Bryantt said. “All the teams in the WDA are tough. Everyone is gonna be a blood bath. They definitely made us work today. It feels even better that we were the underdogs and we came out with a win today.”

Minot guard Sophie Bengson hit two free throws with 16 seconds remaining in the game to give her team a 63-59 lead. Jamestown’s Kyra Dewald answered with one free throw, but Jaden Moum made the back end of a pair of free-throw attempts with 8 seconds left to close it out.

It wasn’t looking good for the Majettes early early in the second half.

Dewald, who finished with 15, had a pair of treys and Paige Peterson closed out a 14-0 run with a pair of short jumpers with 15:26 remaining in the game. Peterson had 17 points and eight rebounds.

However, Bryantt came alive, rallying the Majettes (4-4 West Region, 4-6 overall) to a split in the season series with Jamestown (4-2, 6-3).

“It’s definitely important to stay calm,” Bryantt said. “We’ve been known to come back. I think my girls showed a lot of heart today.”

Skunberg called it a “setback” and said the Blue Jays are still learning on the court.

“We’ve got to learn to put teams away,” said Skunberg, whose team visits Mandan on Thursday. “It’s all a learning process. ... We want our best game at the end of the year, but these are the games we’ve got to come through and win, especially on our home court.”

Minot 64, Jamestown 60

Minot 22 64

Jamestown 29 60

Minot — Loni Bryantt 23, Sierra Duttenhefer 15, Cassie Askvig 12, Sophie Bengson 7, Brooke Suko 3, Jaden Moum 2, Andi Hankla 2. Totals 21-51 14-23 64.

Jamestown — Paige Peterson 17, Kyra Dewald 15, Erin Mullowney 12, Billie Buchanan 7, McKayla Orr 3, Addie Eamon 2, Miah Dabill 2, Rebekah Horgan 2. Totals 24-50 4-14 60.

3-pointers: M 8 (Bryantt 4, Duttenhefer 3, Suko), J 8 (Dewald 4, Mullowney 4). Rebounds: M 20 (Askvig 5), J 22 (Peterson 8). Assists: M 5 (five with 1), J 17 (Orr 7, Dewald 4). Steals: 13 (Bengson 5), J 6 (Peterson 2, Orr 2). Blocks: M 2 (Moum, Hankla), J 1 (Peterson). Total fouls: M 18, J 17. Fouled out: J, Orr. Turnovers: M 14, J 20.

Sun sports writer Chris Aarhus can be reached at (701) 952-8462 or by email at caarhus@jamestownsun.com

Tags: sports, basketball, jays