Bulldogs bounce Nighthawks to earn District 5 Tournament finals berth

Feb. 13—Bulldogs bounce NIghthawks to earn District 5 Tournament finals berth

Grant Co./Mott-Regent dominates #2 Flasher in other semifinal

GLEN ULLIN — The Bowman County girls basketball team is sitting at #3 in North Dakota's Division B right now, and the team showed why with a comprehensive, 67-35 win over Hettinger-Scranton in the upper-half of the bracket on Monday, Feb. 12. Meanwhile, #2 Flasher was somewhat-upset by #3 Grant Co./Mott-Regent, and that sets up a rematch of last-year's Class B-Region 7 title game, which the Bulldogs won, 70-55.

BCHS came out gunning in the first quarter with 5 points each from junior forwards Sophia Headley and Raegen Honeyman and Hettinger-Scranton responded with a 3-pointer from junior guard Sienna Burwick and 7 points from Laela Jensen, who also added a trey.

Jensen kept up the good work for the Nighthawks in the second quarter with another shot from behind the arc and went into the locker room at halftime with 12, but the Bulldogs began to pull away on the strength of 6 points from senior guard Jaci Fischer and and a 3-pointer from Honeyman on her way to 12 first-half points.

With a commanding 37-21 lead, BCHS came out of the break and kept up the pressure, as Fischer registered her final 3-point field-goal on her way to a double-digit 13 and Honeyman finished off the night with a game-high 18 that was capped off by a trey in the third quarter.

Headley went off for 6 in the fourth frame, to tie for the game-high with Honeyman, while junior guard Adyson Gerbig scored four more as the other 'Dawg in double-figures at 12.

But, remarkably, Bowman County held the Nighthawks scoreless in the final eight minutes, and Jensen ended up with 16 on the night and was followed up by 9 from sophomore standout Kinley Stadheim.

Grant County/Mott-Regent is bound to still be ruminating over the 2023 Class B-Region 7 tournament loss, but the rematch was set up by a stout defensive effort and double-digit production from a pair of players, sophomore sensation Jada Ottmar and senior guard Ameerah Rosin.

After stifling the Bulldogs in the first quarter, holding them to only 6 total points, GC/M-R suffered the same fate in the second period and the teams went into halftime with Grant County/Mott-Regent up, 21-16. Ottmar and Rosin both sunk 3-pointers in the quarter, but GC/M-R also benefited from massive production at the free-throw line, where they converted 9-of-14 shots in the opening 16 minutes.

After the squads emerged from the locker rooms after the break, the treys started falling all around the court, with Flasher sinking four and Grant County/Mott-Regent responding with three. The outside-shooting fest was led by Bulldog senior Rylee Fleck — who had two — while GC/M-R's Rosin notched 6 more points on her way to 13 in the game.

Meanwhile, with a solid 39-30 lead heading into the final frame, GC/M-R put on the pressure and poured in another bunch from the charity stripe, as they converted 10-of-21 in the second half for a game-total of 19-for-26. Ottmar scored 6 of her game-high 16 in the last period, while junior forward Samantha Greff came close to double-digits with 9.

Fleck scored a team-high 14 for Flasher, meanwhile, and sophomore guard Adison Vetter followed her up with 7 points.

In the losers'-bracket matchups, Belfield forced South Heart out of the tournament with a winning, 55-23 effort and Richardton-Taylor nixed New England, 67-38. Those wins set up the Tuesday, Feb. 13 Regional Qualifying games between the Bantams and Flasher, while the Nighthawks will face the Raiders on the other side of the bracket.

For more information about prep basketball in North Dakota, please keep reading your Dickinson Press and/or visit the websites at

https://ndhsaanow.com/teams/basketball-boys

and

https://ndhsaanow.com/teams/basketball-girls

.