Titans topple Watford City — Killdeer outlasts Warriors — ’Dawgs represent District 7

NORTH DAKOTA — Good-golly, miss-Molly … can there BE any more hoops to jump-through?

For area teams in the classes A and B side of the aisle, it was a thrilling night, with Bowman County, Trinity and Killdeer all taking their next steps towards the various state tournaments, while other teams fell to losses of their own and ended their respective seasons.

Beach lost to Central McLean, 80-64, and that was followed by a nailbiting Nighthawks' loss to Garrison, 48-45, while Belfield were bounced by Wilton-Wing in the nightcap of the Region 4B tourney, 93-66, at Bismarck St. Mary's home-court.

Courtesy of DeAnn Scheeler

In a game that never was in doubt from the tipoff, Trinity leapt out to a 15-11 lead at the end of one quarter and pushed their lead to an almost-doubled-up halftime advantage of 29-15, with sophomore shooting-star Emerson Simnioniw draining a pair of 3-pointers on his way to 10 first-half points and outside-specialist Landon Knote pouring in three more treys for 11 of his game-high 18 in Watford City.

Courtesy of Lisa Jacobs

Kaden Ham sandwiched all 8 of his points into the first 16 minutes of play, and oh, Knote wasn’t quite done yet. The sophomore added another shot from range in the second half and senior forward Nick Sobolik scorched the Wolves for all 12 of his points in the final two frames, while Simnioniw also sniped another 3-pointer and ended up with 15.

Trinity plays Beulah at roughly 6 p.m. MDT in the second round of the Region 4A Tournament.

Not to be outdone in Watford City, Killdeer horseshoed Standing Rock with a narrow victory, with a 13-11 deficit after eight minutes of gametime and a 26-26 deadlock at the halftime buzzer. Owen Schleppenbach owned the Warriors with half of his 12 points in the first half and Jaxon Reese notched 7, while Kale Hansen dropped one in from distance to keep matters tight.

A surprise performance from Chase Kling – who closed out the second half with 7 of his 10 points to get into double-figures – and 6 more from Cooper Bang combined with Nekori Dahlen’s 11 down the stretch to outlast Standing Rock and give the ’Boys a chance to face top-ranked Shiloh Christian today, March 11 at about 4:30 p.m.

Bowman guarded well against White Shield with a 33-25 halftime lead, as Mason Lambourn mauled the Warriors for all 11 of his points in the first half, while Jackson Fischer scored 8 of his game-high 21.

Free-throws proved to be the order of the second half, as BCHS converted 12-of-19 from the line and Fischer was responsible for 7 of those shots. Chandler Lambourn scored 9 along the way to close in on double-digits, and the ‘’Dawgs will next face #1 Wilton-Wing tonight at 6:30 p.m. in Bismarck at St. Mary’s.

Courtesy of Candace Kessel

Beach’s 21-point second quarter wouldn’t be enough to upend Central McLean’s 47-point, second half performance, with the Bucs scoring 30 over the final 16 minutes of the game. Justus Baker was a one-man-wrecking-ball as he scored 22 points in the final two quarters on his way to a game-high 28 and sniper Colt Ambo connected for all 12 of his points from beyond the arc in the losing effort, and Lucas Brown scored in double-digits for 10, as Beach exits the tourney.

The night’s heartbreaker saw Garrison overcome a 23-19 lead for Hettinger-Scranton and a 34-33 edge with eight minutes left to overcome the Nighthawks. Blake Larson simply cannot be stopped, and he rolled to 7 of his team-high 22 in the first half, while a pair of 3-pointers from Gavin Parnow and one-each from Chason Schumacher and Caden Anderson added to the first-half drama.

Courtesy of Candace Kessel

But an amazing second half from Garrison — who scored 29 in the final two periods — built a wall the Nighthawks couldn’t scale, while Little Hail Perkins poured in three treys on his way to a game-high 27 for the win.

Wilton-Wing struck gold with 21 points from Hunter Wolff and 18 more from Brandon Wallace, but senior guard Mason Kessel did his part with a 16-point first-half that was highlighted by four 3-pointers. Luke Obrigewitsch was at his long-range best with two of his four treys in the opening 16 minutes and Shane Stroh converted from range on his way to 9 points in the game.

Courtesy of Candace Kessel

While Kessel was able to find another 3-pointer on his way to a team-high 19 and Obrigewitsch was directly behind him with 18, even Carter Corneil’s double-figure output of 12 wasn’t enough to overcome another 16 points from Wilton-Wing’s Kaleb Benning that might have made the difference.

For more information about postseason tournament basketball, please keep reading The Dickinson Press and/or visit https://ndhsaanow.com/