In a battle of regional tournament one seeds, the District 6 champions, the Linton/Hazelton-Moffit-Braddock Lions sprinted out to a 12-2 lead over the District 5 champions, the LaMoure/Litchville-Marion Loboes and carried that into a 17-5 first quarter advantage. That would be enough to see the Lions (20-3) get the 48-32 win over the Loboes (18-7) to win the regional tournament on Feb. 26 at the Jamestown Civic Center.
“I thought going into this game that 44 points would win, 45 points would win,” Lions head coach Beau Diegel said. “I did not expect us to play this well defensively. I thought we could but how we executed out there, 32 points, that’s crazy.”
The Lions’ Jaycee Richter stole a ball at the timeline and hit the layup to go up 12-2 with 3:40 to go in the first quarter. The Loboes’ Nora DeLaBarre knocked down the three to cut the deficit to 12-5 with 3 minutes to go in the first quarter. The Lions’ Erin Kelsch knocked down a three at the first quarter buzzer to put her team up 17-5.
“I think we came ready to play,” Richter said. “We worked all week in practice and we were really focused for this game. We have to come out as hard as we can because it could be the last game of the season if we don’t come out playing strong and playing hard and fighting for every ball.”
The Loboes’ Molly Musland drove in and hit the floater to make it 18-9 with just over five minutes to go. The Lions’ Kaylee Weninger hit the layup to push her team’s lead out to 23-11 with 2:45 to go in the second quarter.
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The Loboes’ Molly Robbins drove in and hit the layup and converted the and-one to cut hte deficit to 42-25 late in the third quarter.
The Lions’ Teegan Scherr went strong to the cup and hit the runner to push her team’s lead out to 46-30 with 2:15 to go in the game.
In this game, the Loboes shot 2-17 from three point range, which head coach Mitch Carlson credits to the Lions ability to put the clamps down beyond the arc.
“They just pressured the perimeter really well against us, took us out of our rhythm of good looks,” Carlson said. “They did a good job of pressuring our perimeter players.”
The Lions’ go to Bismarck at 8:15 p.m. on Thursday, March, 3, when they face Shiloh Christian in the first round of the State Tournament.
L/H-M-B 48, L/L-M 32,
L/H-M-B: 17 10 15 6–48
L/L-M: 5 11 9 7—32
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Points leaders:
L/H-M-B: Jaycee Richter 20, Teegan Scherr 16, Kaylee Weninger 4, Callie Hase 3, Erin Kelsch 3, Emma Weiser 2
L/L-M: Molly Musland 11, Tessa Rasmusson 8, Mollie Robbins 7, Norah DelaBarre 6
Assists leaders:
L/H-M-B: Richter 5, Kelsch 3, Callie Hase 1
L/L-M: Robbins 1, Rasmusson 1
Leading rebounders:
L/H-M-B: Richter 10, Weninger 9, Hase 6, Kelsch 2, Scherr 1, Weiser 1
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L/L-M: DeLaBarre 10, Robbins 9, Rose Wendel 2, Ballie Kelley 2, Musland 2, Rasmusson 1
Region 3 Girls Basketball Tournament:
First-round games for Feb. 24:
No. 1 LaMoure/Litchville-Marion 48 vs. No. 4 Napoleon/Gackle-Streeter 38
No. 2 Kidder County 40 vs. No. 3 Edgeley/Kulm-Montpelier 49
No. 1 Linton/Hazelton-Moffit-Braddock 47 vs. No. 4 Carrington 35
No. 2 Oakes 45 vs. No. 3 Medina/Pingree-Buchanan 46
Semifinal games for Feb. 25:
No. 1 L/L-M 49 vs. No. 3 E/K-M 38
No. 1 L/H-M-B 52 vs. No. 3 M/P-B 34
Final games for Feb. 26:
No. 3 M/P-B 37 vs. No. 3 E/K-M 48,
No. 1 L/L-M 32 vs. No. 1 L/H-M-B 48
Tournament awards:
Athletic Director of the Year: Ryan Larson, Kidder County
Coach of the Year: David Goetz, Oakes
District 5 Senior of the Year: Molly Musland, L/L-M
District 6 Senior of the Year: Jaycee Richter, Linton/H-M-B
Region 3 Senior of the Year: Jaycee Richter, Linton/H-M-B
