Raiders split games with Beach on the road
Feb. 10—SOUTHWEST NORTH DAKOTA — While the season might be winding down, the playoffs are underway in girls Division B/Region 3-District 5 — where the Richardton-Taylor Raiders won a Friday, Feb. 9 play-in game over Beach on the road, while the boys fell to the Buccaneers in Richardton, 47-44, on the same night. Bowman County, meanwhile, overcame their first loss of the season to win over Williston Trinity Christian, 61-57, on the road.
Three athletes ended up in double-digits for the visiting Richardton-Taylor Raiders in the Friday-night play in game, which sets up a date with Flasher in the playoffs on Saturday. RTHS used a 15-10 first-quarter lead to push the defense and hold the Bucs to only 9 points in the second on their way to a 31-19 halftime lead.
While Aubrie Dykins, Grace Bosserman and Aeryn Finneman combined with Grace Bosserman to score a trio of 3-pointers for Beach, Richardton-Taylor responded with Jenna Schutt's 9 first-half total, AshLynn Christensen's 6 and Mariska Krank, who poured in a trey on her way to 9 in the first 16 minutes and a game-high 23 on the night.
Beach was held to single-digits in both of the final two quarters — at 5 and 8, respectively — but the Raiders rolled to 22 in the third and 18 in the final to notch the win.
Krank dropped in a pair of shots from behind the arc in that final frame and Christensen continued her hot-streak with 12. Meanwhile, Schutt wound up with 12 points of her own and Evelyn Kuntz scored 6 in the second-half to get into double-figures with 10.
Dykins led the way for Beach with a double-digit 13 points.
Beach's season comes to a close at 1-18 overall and 0-8 in the district, while Richardton-Taylor's improved to 9-11, 3-6.
Beach High School improved their record to 6-10 overall and 2-6 in District 5 with the Friday effort, as the visiting Buccaneers came from behind to earn the victory. The Raiders (4-13, 2-7) ripped off 15 points in the opening period and furthered that advantage to 27-21 at the half. Caisen Dohrmann reeled off 11 first-half points for RTHS and Kane Rivinius dropped in 7 during the first two quarters on the way to the lead.
Meanwhile, Justus Baker kept things close for the Bucs with 7 first-half points and Bennett Braden and Adam Trask added 4 each to stay within shouting-distance.
The visitors didn't give up, outscoring the Raiders, 15-11, in the third frame as Baker added another 3 and Chase Christensen responded with 6 points for the home-team as the game closed to a 38-36 gap with Richardton-Taylor narrowly in front.
But the shooting went cold for the hosts in the final eight minutes as they were held to only 6 points and Beach came at them in waves. Baker added 4 more to his team-high 14 and Braden added 2 more to his total of 8 with Lucas Brown coming off the bench to score 5 of his 9 in the second half. Trask wound up with 8 on the night for the Bucs.
Dohrmann finished up with a team-high 16 — to go along with a remarkable 19 rebounds for a double-double — and Christensen scored 13, while Rivinius came close to double-figures at 9 points.
The Bowman County Bulldogs recovered from their first loss of the season — on Monday, Feb. 5 to Glen Ullin-Hebron, 62-58 — to win on the road over Williston Trinity Christian, 61-57. The victory improved BCHS's record to 15-1 overall and 7-1 in Division B/Region 3-District 5 as the regular season is winding to a close.
The come-from-behind win came courtesy of double-digit scoring from senior guards Bohden and Bishop Duffield, who paced the Bulldogs with a huge 51-combined points. Meanwhile, the Crusaders marched to a huge 27-10 lead at the end of the first quarter as Kai Thomas reeled off an unbelievable 15 points in the first eight minutes.
But the 'Dawgs chomped down on the 6'6" senior from there, limiting the forward to only a 3-pointer in the second period and holding the home-team to only 8 points. Meanwhile, Bowman County closed the gap as the Duffields scored 8 apiece in the first two quarters to keep the game within eyeshot. Coming out of the locker rooms at the half, BCHS went bananas with 21 points while nearly holding the hosts to single digits again at 10. Bohden Duffield scored 4 and Bishop poured in a remarkable 14 in the first eight minutes after the halftime break to give the visitors a narrow, 45-44 deficit heading into the final frame.
But the Duffields weren't finished by a long-shot, as Bohden dropped a pair of 3s into the basket and Bishop added 8 more to his game-high 30 with the Bulldogs scoring 17 to the Crusaders' 12 for the win.
Thomas scored 6 more points for a team-high 29 total and James Richards scored a double-digit 13, but they couldn't overcome the second-half onslaught from Bowman.
Next-up for Richardton-Taylor's girls team will be a Saturday, Feb. 10 game in the Region 3-District 5 playoffs with Flasher, while the Raiders' boys team will face Washburn at home on Feb. 13. Meanwhile, the 'Dawgs will host Grant Co./Mott-Regent on Feb. 15.
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
.
